Manitoba Pork op-ed - Cam Dahl

On September 17th, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) began a 45-day public comment period on the effectiveness and impact of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), and public hearings on CUSMA will be held in the U.S. this November. The process to review Canada’s most important trade agreement has begun. 

Our relationships with our partners, customers, and suppliers in the U.S. matter now more than ever. Recently, Manitoba Pork was on a mission to Iowa with Manitoba’s Minister of Agriculture, Ron Kostyshyn. It was an opportunity to talk to Iowa’s farm leaders and politicians about the value of our integrated market and the trade between us. We could not have received a warmer welcome. There is a strong understanding south of the border about the value of our trading relationship. The USTR and U.S. Congress will likely not give a lot of weight to comments from the Canadian pork sector, Canadian agriculture in general, or even our federal and provincial governments, but they will listen to the Governor of Iowa and elected representatives of Iowa’s agriculture base.  

While it might look good on social media or on television for a Canadian politician, in a fit of pique, to pour out whiskey distilled in Manitoba over a disagreement with a multi-national company, or to threaten to turn off the lights in American states, this is not how strong positive relationships are built. Relationships are built by showing up at state fairs as friends and neighbours. Canadians cannot afford to have potential allies in the U.S. and Mexico turned off by aggressive commentary coming from north of the 49th parallel. We need partnership not rhetoric.  

For Canadian agriculture, this outreach should be the top priority for the industry, especially for the 90 percent of Canadian farmers who depend on international markets for their price discovery and sales. While we must look to diversify our markets, we cannot replace the U.S. as a destination. For example, Manitoba ships over 3 million live pigs to be finished in the U.S. every year. Today these exports are moving under the protection of CUSMA. If we were to lose that protection or have the integration between producers in the U.S. and Canada weakened, these animals would have no alternative markets and communities across our province would feel the economic impact.

Canada’s federal, provincial, and territorial agriculture ministers met in Winnipeg the second week of September. I am hopeful that they discussed the development of a strategic outreach plan with our partners in the U.S. Not every Minister needs to visit every state capitol in the lower 48 states, but we should have a plan in place to have at least one agricultural delegation reach out to most of them before the 45-day comment period on the effectiveness of CUSMA expires. 

Which brings me to my closing observation. The U.S. has started public consultations on the effectiveness of CUSMA. When are the Canadian consultations going to begin? The best time to start the development of a strategic pan-Canadian agricultural position on the key elements of the CUSMA would have been about 18 months ago. The second-best time to start this dialogue with the agriculture community is today. If this does not occur, Canada runs the risk that we will go into the critical part of the CUSMA review with both industry and governments divided. That could be a mistake that has far reaching consequences for farmers from coast to coast. 

For agriculture, the overall goal going into the CUSMA review must be the preservation and expansion of the integrated North American market for both agricultural commodities and food. For the betterment of farmers, processors and consumers, we must actively target the elimination of tariff and non-tariff trade barriers including, regulatory misalignment between Canada and the U.S., increased use of restrictive country of origin labelling requirements, and individual state regulations that restrict trade within North America. 

Our strategic discussions with our CUSMA partners should also recognize that, in an increasingly less stable international trading environment, secure trade within North America of agriculture commodities and food contributes to the national security of all three CUSMA signatories and helps deliver a reliable and safe food supply for North American consumers.