Canada and Mexico Spared but Reciprocal U.S. Tariffs Could Contribute to Global Recession

A partner with Polar Pork says, while Canada and Mexico were spared, reciprocal tariffs imposed last week by the U.S. on 75 of its trading partners and the uncertainty they create could help trigger a global recession.On April 2'nd U.S. President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs ranging from 10 to 50 percent on 75 of its global trading partners and, while Canada and Mexico were excluded, the threat of additional tariffs remains on the table.

Florian Possberg, a partner with Polar Pork, says there are more questions than answers and it's hard to map out what the chain of events about to unfold will mean for the pork industry but, anytime you have this kind of instability, it's not good for markets and these trade issues could escalate.

Clip-Florian Possberg-Polar Pork:

We've been spared. There's no 25 percent tariff or any tariff on our live hogs that we send to the U.S. nor is there a tariff on the pork that trades back and forth between the three countries, Mexico, the United States and Canada. Our customers in the U.S. don't want to lose our supply and so they've been speaking to their politicians both state and federally saying they don't want to see a tariff on live hogs.

Sask Pork sent a contingent down to the Midwest to lobby on our behalf, our industry behalf as well as Canada Pork and all of our producers from across Canada have made it known and generally the agriculture community in the United States are not in favor of trade impediments and much desire free trade as well.So, we've had good response from both sides of the border trying to dissuade the Trump administration from putting tariffs on our industry.

Possberg says perhaps cooler heads will prevail and things will cool down but we run the risk of everything heating up and getting much worse.
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