Canola Council of Canada

Policy Positions

Trade Related:

1. The Council supports the elimination of legislation in the Province of Quebec which restrict margarine color.

2. The Council supports equitable quality oriented canola grading standards, as well as domestic and international trading standards.

3. The Council supports an accountable, open, competitive, and commercial system of oilseed, oilseed product and grain transportation in Canada.

4. The Council recommends any country accession to the WTO must be negotiated with the objective of ensuring equitable treatment of canola and canola products compared to competing products.

5. The Council supports a Canadian negotiating position on oilseeds of zero for zero within a level playing field for World Trade Organization negotiations.

6. The Council takes a lead role in the efforts toward domestic and North American harmonization of pesticide regulations and maximum residue limits. Until pesticide harmonization between Canada & the USA is complete, the Council will not support a new Canadian pesticide registration for use on canola if the new pesticide does not have a registration or import tolerance level approved in the USA.

Variety Registration Related:

7. The Council supports the Canadian variety registration system and maintenance of high quality standards in that system.

8. The Canola Council of Canada supports a level of 7% or less saturated fat in canola oil. It is recommended that the variety registration requirements be set to meet that objective for the commercial crop.

9. The Council supports variety regulations that allow for contract production of specialty canola varieties.

10. The Canola Council of Canada will support composition of matter patents only if they are released to the industry under non-exclusive commercial terms.

11. The Council requires that any company wishing full variety registration to produce, or distribute, novel trait canola seed, must, before seeking full registration in Canada:

- meet WCC/RRC criteria for variety recommendation,
- obtain the appropriate regulatory approvals in Canada, the USA, Mexico and Japan, and
- when China has developed guidelines, obtain the appropriate regulatory approvals in China.

OR

- meet WCC/RRC criteria for variety recommendation and
- propose to the WCC/RRC the variety be brought forward through the Specialty & Contract registration system until the appropriate regulatory approval requirements are met in Canada, the USA, Mexico, Japan and China.

Canola Industry Policy on Innovation and Market Access

Consumer Related:

12. The Council supports the Health Canada mandatory labeling guidelines for novel trait products when it is shown substantial equivalence is not present or when it is shown an allergen has been introduced to the product. Furthermore, the Council supports the labeling of such novel trait products on the basis of the product change, not on the process employed to develop the change.

Government Related:

13. The Council encourages improvement in consistency and dependability of official statistics on Canadian canola.

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