Former Chief Agricultural Trade Negotiator for Canada Mike Gifford was in Winnipeg last Friday, speaking at the 22nd Annual Fields on Wheels Conference organized by the University of Manitoba and the Transport Institute.
Gifford gave two possible outcomes, if the United States decides to withdraw from NAFTA.
"The first scenario is that NAFTA is terminated between Canada and the United States and what happens then is, that other things being equal, we revert back to the original Canada-U.S. trade agreement, which as far as agriculture is concerned is the only commitment, because in NAFTA we didn't change anything on agriculture."
Gifford notes the other possible scenario is that the U.S. terminates NAFTA and the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (CUSTA).
He says that this would mean reverting back to tariffs established under the World Trade Organization (WTO), which for agriculture, were fairly low sitting at about four per cent for most commodities.
Source : Steinbachonline