The CWB welcomes the Government of Canada’s efforts to begin free trade talks with Morocco, which are crucial to protect Prairie durum wheat exports worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz met this week with the Moroccan agriculture and trade ministers in Rabat, Morocco to discuss opportunities for negotiation of a free-trade agreement.
“We are pleased to see positive steps towards a trade agreement that we have been actively encouraging for the past five years,” said CWB president and CEO Ian White. “CWB sales are 75 per cent of Canada’s total exports to Morocco, where couscous made from durum wheat is a staple food. This is extremely important to western Canadian farmers.”
As the world’s top exporter of durum wheat to Morocco, the CWB supplies over 90 per cent of the country’s durum import demand. In the previous crop year, the CWB exported a near-record 622 000 tonnes of durum to Morocco, worth about $300 million to Prairie producers.
However, Canada’s dominant durum position is in danger of erosion from a free-trade agreement signed four years ago between Morocco and the United States, which will increasingly put Canadian imports at a tariff disadvantage to American imports.
“We need a deal that can put western Canadian farmers on an even footing with their global competitors,” White said. “Canada cannot afford to jeopardize its favourable position in one of the few significant world markets for high-quality durum.”
The CWB has built close relationships with Moroccan millers and grain buyers over the past 15 years to triple its share of the country’s durum import market since 1995-96. The CWB conducts regular market development missions to Morocco, most recently in December 2008. The CWB also brings Moroccan millers and grain buyers to Winnipeg for technical development sessions at the Canadian International Grains Institute.
White said the CWB would be pleased to assist the government in the process of completing an agreement with Morocco.
