Manitoba Pork Calls on Agriculture Ministers to Prioritise Review of Canada United States Mexico Trade Agreement

The General Manager of Manitoba Pork is calling on Canada's elected officials to prioritize the renegotiation of the Canada, United States Mexico trade agreement and to tone down the rhetoric while working with our allies in the U.S. to maintain trade. An article posted to Manitoba Pork's web site and published in Manitoba community newspapers looks at the statutory review and potential renegotiation of the Canada United States Mexico trade agreement.

Manitoba Pork General Manager Cam Dahl suggests this matter should be the number one issue of Canada's agriculture ministers from coast to coast.

Quote-Cam Dahl-Manitoba Pork:

Bluster and rhetoric coming from north of the border, to be really quite blunt, isn't always helpful.It makes things more difficult for our allies in the United States and we have those. We have considerable allies in the U.S. and they are our partners and our trading partners. We were recently in Iowa with Minister Kostyshyn and we couldn’t have had a warmer welcome.

There's an understanding with the elected politicians from the governor to the state senate and the state house that trade is important, that trade with Canada is important and that we shouldn't be changing the agreement between us. There's an understanding from industry leaders including Iowa Pork and the Farm Bureau and others that everybody benefits from the integrated market.

So, we need to working with those like-minded partners in the U.S. and helping them to influence the administration.I don't think the U.S. Trade Representative is going to take a call from me but they're likely going to take a call from the Governor of Iowa and so those relationships now are critically important.

Dahl suggests the focus needs to be the preservation of the integrated North American market, which benefits consumers and producers on both sides of the border. He says, to steal a line from medicine, it's do no harm and that's the primary objective of going into the CUSMA review.