Brazil threatens US dominance of Canadian poultry meat market. (Which Way To Go?).

Brazil may mount a serious challenge to the United States for the poultry market in Canada, now that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has recognized the poultry meat inspection system of Brazil.

Canada currently imports virtually all of its chicken from the US, whereas Brazil is

Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Uruguay Round Agreement, Canada restricts poultry meat imports through the use of a highly protective tariff-rate quota (TRQ). The current NAFTA formula level for chicken is 69,500 metric tons. The tariff on that amount is five percent. Above that level, the tariff varies from 238% to 249%.

Canadian authorities argue that, while the US has been almost the only supplier of poultry meat to Canada, the TRQ should be available on a global basis and any imports of poultry meat from anywhere will henceforth be counted against the 69,500-metric ton TRQ.

Last year, Canada imported $263 million worth of US poultry meat and was the second largest market for the US, after $666 million for Russia. The Brazilian poultry industry believes it can export up to 25,000 metric tons of chicken to Canada annually. This would use more that one third of Canada's chicken TRQ and represent another serious blow to US.poultry meat exports.