All eyes are on Washington, DC this week as a new president is sworn in, and a new government takes power. The new administration will bring many changes both known and unknown – and a big concern for Canada is the potential for tariffs on Canadian goods, including agriculture and agri-food products, exported to the United States.
Canada exports a large part of its agricultural production around the world with approximately 60% of those exports going to the United States. Statistics Canada data shows, for example, that 99.5% of greenhouse vegetables grown in Canada, are exported to the United States; we also export a large part of our beef, pork and canola oil production.
Canadian agriculture also sources a significant amount of livestock feed, veterinary products, farm machinery and agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilizer and crop protection products from the U.S., making the agri-food-sector tightly connected across our shared border.
There are countless benefits that both countries enjoy because of our long history as reliable trading partners across all sectors of the economy, and it’s important for Canada and the United States to maintain an integrated economy that allows goods to flow across the border in both directions without disruption.
If our costs on the farm go up, our consumers will feel it at the grocery store. With today’s news that tariffs will not go into effect today, there is an opportunity for all of us, our premiers, our federal government, and our agricultural stakeholders to work to change the course and continue to try to convince President Trump and his administration that this is the wrong approach. We’re all in this together; it’s a Team Canada approach that we need right now.
The potential impacts of tariffs can’t be ignored, however, and with implications for farmers across the country, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and the federal and provincial governments have been actively working to develop proactive solutions to any possible disruptive actions.
I’m the president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) and we’ve been supporting these efforts since the threat of tariffs was first raised late last fall.
Representatives from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the CFA recently attended the Legislative Ag Chairs Summit in Iowa, an annual event that brings together elected officials and government and industry leaders in the agricultural sector from both sides of the border.
CFA has also participated in stakeholder roundtables hosted by Canada’s Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Lawrence McAuley, and along with AAFC and OFA, will be participating in the American Farm Bureau Federation convention starting later this week in Texas.
All of these meetings are aimed at raising the profile of Canadian agriculture, at strengthening and expanding relationships between farmers and farm organizations in both countries and reinforcing that a tariff war will only have negative consequences for everyone involved on both sides of the border.
Farming is already a tough business, with weather extremes like floods, drought and storms, as well as pests and diseases that can impact our crops and livestock a constant threat. Added to that are an increasingly cumbersome regulatory environment, a growing tax burden at all levels of government, and prices paid to farmers for their products that in some sectors are not keeping pace with inflation and rising production costs.
All of these are factors beyond the control of farmers that combine to hinder the growth and competitiveness of our sector – which in Ontario contributes more than $50 billion to the economy every year and provides jobs for more than 870,000 people or about 11% of our provincial workforce.
This underscores more than ever the need for government to step up and support the agri-food sector. Federally, this means prioritizing food production as an activity of critical national importance. In Ontario, this includes expanding funding for the Risk Management Program and other initiatives that provide a safety net for farm businesses in uncertain times like these.
We should be proud of our agricultural industry and its ability to feed not just Canadians but also Americans and others around the world and work together to keep the sector strong in ways that will bring benefit to both sides of the border.
Source : OFA