P.E.I. emphasizes urgency of lifting fresh potato trade suspension in 'positive' Ottawa meeting

Federal and provincial officials met in Ottawa Thursday to discuss how to move forward amid the suspension of fresh potato exports from P.E.I. to the U.S.

Provincial Agriculture Minister Bloyce Thompson met with federal counterpart Marie-Claude Bibeau along with the Island's four MPs, industry representatives and officials from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to talk about the trade ban.

The CFIA issued the suspension in November after the discovery of potato wart on two of the Island's fields in October.

Thompson said the meeting was "positive" even though no timeline was established for lifting the ban.

"We got a lot of answers," he said. "We really emphasized the urgency, and the president of CFIA came up to me after the meeting and really emphasized how she now gets the importance of a timeline of to get this resolved.

"We left on a very positive note that we are going to hopefully in the next few weeks, we do have a timeline."

Thompson said Bibeau and the MPs showed they were engaged on the issue and working hard to get it resolved.

"I think we all left the meeting with more optimism," said Heath MacDonald, Liberal MP for Malpeque.  

"Today's meeting did a lot to give everyone around that table ... a better insight to the process and protocols that have been put in place over the number of years and how they have worked."

MacDonald said he hopes the optimism carries over to a meeting between the CFIA and the United States Department of Agriculture on Friday. 

The federal government said the suspension was issued to prevent a U.S. ban, which would be more difficult to reverse.

"CFIA has to believe in the process that has been in place, and you know the management plan has been there," MacDonald said. "The other side of it is too the P.E.I. Potato Board and those farmers are telling us what we need to do, what changes we need today. And we'll do it."

McDonald said some of the issues brought to the table were making sure there were no more impediments to inter-provincial exports, and the possibility of a ban exemption for Puerto Rico.

The U.S. territory is a key market for P.E.I. potatoes.