Mark it down as “case closed” in Saskatchewan’s favour, as the province has now won all aspects of its oilseed internal trade challenge with Quebec.
An appeal panel, established under the pan-Canadian Agreement on Internal Trade, released a final ruling upholding the Saskatchewan government’s successful challenge last spring of the Quebec government’s restrictions against the production, sale and marketing of vegetable oil-based dairy products in its market.
The Quebec government had appealed the original ruling, but in December had made changes to its Food Products Act removing barriers to the production and sale of vegetable-based oil products, thus allowing Saskatchewan producers and processors to now freely sell their products in Quebec. The appeal panel’s final ruling not only confirms that those changes by Quebec were necessary, but also upholds Saskatchewan’s challenge of Quebec labelling laws that prohibit the use of terms like “milk”, “butter” and “cheese” for dairy substitute products.
News on the appeal panel’s ruling can be found at www.ait-aci.ca/index_en/news.htm and at www.ait-aci.ca/index_en/dispute.htm.
