By Curtis Galbraith

Industry groups welcoming TPP

Jan 25, 2018 | 4:12 PM

Several industry groups are welcoming the news that Canada has joined the new Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

One of those is the Alberta Forest Products Association.

President and CEO Paul Whittaker says his group has supported this deal for a long time and were worried when it looked like it might fall apart.

“There’s a couple of the other countries that are signatories that are actually competitors of ours, like Australia and New Zealand. But, there are a number of countries there that are potential future markets for us, like Vietnam, like Malaysia and then there are a couple existing markets like Mexico and Japan.”

Whittaker says new markets are important, as the on-going softwood lumber issues mean the U.S. one will be what he calls “a challenge for us in the year ahead.”

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“We better be looking really hard at growing other existing markets like Japan and China and looking after new markets.

He adds TPP should mean more shipments for pulp, lumber, and OSB.

“OSB in Japan, the tariff is dropping. I know pulp in Vietnam was part of the deal as well. It’s potentially the full range of products that will see tariff reductions and, (in) some cases, outright tariff elimination.”

Farm groups like Alberta Beef Producers are also welcoming the news.

Executive Director Rich Smith says this a “tremendous opportunity” for the cattle sector, especially in the Japanese market.

“It’s a very large market for us and we’ve been at a substantial disadvantage to the Australians with respect to tariffs and this agreement will eliminate that disadvantage and we think it could add $200-million a year to our sales to Japan.”

He is also hopeful this will open new markets.

“There’s nine other countries besides Canada and Japan involved in it and this will also open our access to those markets. A number of these Southeast Asian markets have growing middle-class populations and we can expect that their demand for the high-quality, grain-fed beef that we supply from Canada will also increase.”

Smith cautions that the tricky part of trade deals is when they actually come into effect.

“I think they’re talking about having it signed in March and then, we don’t know how soon after that it will actually be implemented. It seems that the countries are all enthusiastic about moving forward quickly, so I’m expecting that it could proceed quite quickly after the signing of it in March.”