By Bruce Cochrane
The chair of the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board is calling on candidates running in Canada's 42 Canadian general election to maintain the existing commitment to trade.
Canadians are scheduled to head to the polls October 19 to elect members to the House of Commons in the 42 Parliament of Canada.
Sask Pork chair Florian Possberg says trade is one of the priority issues for pork producers in Saskatchewan.
Florian Possberg-Saskatchewan Pork Development Board:
The whole issue around trade is very important to us.
We've been fighting the U.S. over Country of Origin Labelling and we've had strong support from our government leaders on that issue and it's not quite resolved and it looks like it's going to go past the election so who ever the government is and people responsible for the ag portfolio, we need them onside in terms of finally getting a proper resolution to County of Origin labelling.
Of course, on that one, we want full repeal of Country of Origin Labelling.
We very much believe that it disadvantages our Canadian industry unfairly.
As well there's a quite a number of trade negotiations going on that are not completed, whether it's CETA with the European common market or TPP, Trans-Pacific.
There's other agreements being negotiated with India and China and various other key markets for us and so we want the high level of interest to continue past the election no matter what government is there.
Possberg says, from a national perspective, agriculture has trouble registering on the radar so it's important for pork industry stakeholders to engage key players within the parties to make sure they're aware of pork industry concerns are listening to those who can provide the right environment for the industry.
Source: Farmscape