Canadian Pork Producers Fearful of Looming U.S. Tariffs on Canadian and Mexican Imports

A partner with Polar Pork expects the imposition of an across-the-board 25 percent tariff on U.S. imports from Canada and Mexico to have a devastating impact on all of Canadian agriculture. The United States is Canada's largest importer of processed pork products and the only importer of live Canadian hogs, accounting for five million plus live hogs per year.

Florian Possberg, a partner with Polar Pork, says we seem to have a dysfunctional federal government right now and the turmoil in Ottawa puts Canada in a weaker position than it should be.

Quote-Florian Possberg-Polar Pork:

Definitely the elephant in the room is the 25 percent tariff that Donald Trump, the new President in the U.S. has said he's going to apply across the board on imports from Canada and Mexico. He claims to have the executive orders already written up and ready to go when he's inaugurated on January 20th. That definitely would have a major impact on not only our industry but the whole Canadian economy.

Donald Trump said all through his run for president that there's too many illegal immigrants coming from both Mexico and Canada, there's too many drugs that are getting into the United States and drug overdoses are a big problem so, unless we address the immigration and the drugs coming Mr. Trump as president will put on the tariff.

It's not about our pork at all or our beef or any of the meats going into the U.S. or other agriculture products, it's all about immigration and drugs so our politicians really have to step up and solve the problem.

Possberg says Canada's farmers are helpless bystanders in this dispute and pork producers have their fingers and toes crossed that our politicians will work out some sort of an agreement and the tariff will not happen. For more visit Farmscape.Ca.