Any Canada U.S. Trade Agreement Must Support Agriculture

A partner with Polar Pork suggests a trade agreement in line with what was in place between Canada and the United States before the start of the Trump trade war, with zero tariffs on agriculture, is critical to the sustainability of agriculture on both sides of the border. Effective August 1st the general tariff on products imported from Canada to the U.S. and not covered by the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement increased from 25 to 35 percent.

Florian Possberg, a partner with Polar Pork says, although agriculture has escaped any negative consequences to date, the political games create uncertainty and the prospects of additional tariffs are concerning.

Quote-Florian Possberg-Polar Pork:

There appears to be some resolve by agreements that have been made with the EU and the UK and different  countries around the world, Japan, Korea. Those agreements end up with a 15 percent tariff on goods coming from outside the United States into the United States and no tariffs on things from the United States going to these other countries.

That's not an agreement that we want in Canada. We've had zero tariffs on most of our goods both ways and so, at the end of the day, we need to have a trade agreement that is pretty much in line with what we had existing before all of this started to happen.Our Prime Minister has already said we probably have to expect that there may be tariffs and that's not particularly comforting if it applies to agriculture products because 15 percent tariffs on our grains and meats and all the things that we export to the United States, that's not a good deal for us.

Possberg says Polar Pork's customers like the health and quality of Canadian pigs and don't want to lose them and there are many industries in the same situation. He says, whether it's energy or grains or beef and pork, we trade with the Americans because it's just plain good business and it is comforting to know that that we have friends on the other side of the border lobbying for beneficial trade agreements.