Trade Negotiations in Agriculture: A Future Common Agenda for Brazil and Canada

J.H. Galloway is a professor of geography at the University of Toronto
and the author of The Sugar Cane Industry.

This collection of seven essays is the product of a seminar that was
held at the University of Calgary in September 2003. The context of the
seminar, whose participants included academics, government officials,
and businesspeople, was the Doha Round of trade negotiations being
conducted under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTA). Put
simply, the Doha Round is an attempt to resolve the tensions in
agricultural trade between U.S. and EU protectionism and the desire of
developing countries to break into those markets.

One of the book’s central themes is that a common agenda might be
difficult to achieve, given that Canada and Brazil are at different
stages of development, produce different crops, and within the context
of the WTA have alliances with different interest groups. Canada is a
member of the Cairns Group, which consists of a few wealthy countries
that are major grain exporters. Brazil, on the other hand, is concerned
with the trade in sugar and soybeans, and has more in common with other
developing countries.

There are also some irritants in the relations between the two
countries, the fierce competition between Embraer and Bombardier being a
prime example. Another point of contention is a Canadian agricultural
policy that supports protection of Canada’s dairy and poultry
industries (Brazil is a major exporter of poultry). Diplomacy is
required to overcome problems and to build on common interests.

This book is a useful introduction to the complexities of international
trade negotiations in general and the Canada–Brazil relationship in
particular.