Current Agriculture, Food & Resource Issues
D. Surprenant and J.-P. Gervais
commitment commitment and
tariffs
Figure 2 Importers’ preferences towards TRQ liberalization scenarios in the Canadian
chicken industry.
36.6 percent were from the province of Quebec while the remaining firms operated in
other Canadian provinces. The sample is representative of the geographic concentration of
the industry since, of all importers listed with Foreign Affairs and International Trade,
40.4 percent are located in Quebec.
The upcoming round of negotiations in agriculture will surely encompass a broad
agenda of topics in agri-food trade. A number of TRQ liberalization scenarios will likely
be discussed. The second question in the survey was designed to evaluate importers’
qualitative judgments of Canadian import policy in the chicken industry. Importers were
asked which type of import policy they would support in comparison with the current
trade system. Figure 2 shows the preferences of Canadian chicken importers relative to
various TRQ liberalization scenarios. Of the importers surveyed, 40.5 percent wish to
have the minimum access commitment (MAC) expanded above the current negotiated
access of 7.5 percent of the previous year’s domestic production. A significant proportion
of importers (25.2 percent) support the status quo in terms of access. Alternatively,
8.1 percent of the importers would like Canadian negotiators to argue for a more
protectionist position. Liberalization through a simultaneous reduction in the over-quota
tariff and an increase in the MAC is supported by 9.9 percent of the importers. Simply
reducing over-quota tariffs to stimulate trade liberalization is supported by a meagre
2.7 percent of the importers surveyed. Some firms (13.6 percent) think that market access
negotiations should be undertaken through other means.
The next section of the survey directly addresses the administration procedures of the
TRQ. Figure 3 shows that a large portion of the importers surveyed (46.4 percent) prefer
preserving the current allocation scheme. An administration method strictly based upon
historical market shares is the next preferred alternative of importers. A licence-on-
demand type of allocation receives 17 percent of all support. Non-discretionary types of
allocation, specifically first-come-first-served or an auction, collect levels of support of
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