For the exportable commodities such as canola, pork, beef, seafood, and wheat, trade is a fundamental staple of creating value for products being produced by Canadian agriculture. Canada is an export-reliant nation with vast agricultural production and production potential, but only forty million people in population. According to CAFTA, Canada is the fifth largest exporter… Read More
Category: CETA
Exports from Canada face growing uncertainty as governments around the world look inward in an effort to gain votes. Whether it’s the collapse of the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement process, individual countries introducing new technical trade barriers, or politicians deploying subsidies and tariffs in the name of more domestic jobs, the world is generally… Read More
Steve Verheul, now principal with GT Canada, served as Canada’s chief trade negotiator for several large trade deals, including what eventually became the United States-Canada-Mexico Agreement, or USMCA/CUSMA. This week, he joined Shaun Haney on RealAg Radio, recorded live at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s AGM in Ottawa. They spoke about: Multi-lateral vs bi-lateral trade… Read More
Negotiations on a trade deal between Canada and the UK have come to a halt with both sides unhappy about what the other is offering when it comes to market access for agricultural products. The British side has walked away from the table, citing a lack of progress in negotiations on a longer-term bilateral deal…. Read More
British cheese companies are ramping up pressure on the UK government to reach a deal with Canada before they lose preferential market access in the Canadian market on December 31. With the deadline looming, the cheese import issue has been linked with Canada’s long-standing quest for increased beef market access into the UK. According to… Read More
National cattle and meat industry organizations find themselves in a strange predicament, calling on the Canadian government to delay its approval for a trade deal. The Canadian Cattle Association, Canadian Meat Council, and National Cattle Feeders’ Association — normally in favour of new trade agreements — launched a campaign called “Say No to A Bad… Read More
In the near term, navigating severe and prolonged drought is a key focus on the Canadian Cattle Association. But in the ongoing and longer-term, there is concern at the CCA regarding what’s happening on the trade and legislative fronts in Ottawa. General manager of the Canadian Cattle Association, Ryder Lee, points to the lack of… Read More
The United Kingdom has reached an agreement to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, better known as the CPTPP. It’s the first time a new member has joined the CPTPP since the original 11 Pacific Rim countries, including Canada, reached the deal in 2018. From an agricultural perspective, the Canadian Cattle Association… Read More
It’s been nearly six years since Canada ratified a major trade agreement with its second largest trading partner, the European Union. While the deal has been hailed as an overall success, it has yet to live up to its potential when it comes to agricultural exports from Canada. At the time in 2017, it was… Read More
The latest round of compensation payouts to dairy farmers for lost market share through international trade deals will be complete by the end of the month. This second round of the Dairy Direct Payment Program brings the total number of dairy farmers registered for compensation to 9,682. The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Marie-Claude Bibeau announced… Read More
The federal government has announced long-promised compensation for the supply-managed poultry and egg sectors, as well as new details and an updated timeline for dairy compensation. Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said $691 million will be directed to the egg, chicken and turkey sectors over the next decade as compensation for market access that was conceded… Read More
The Canada-United Kingdom transitional trade deal announced in a virtual press conference on Saturday by Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau and Boris Johnson and their respective trade ministers is a “welcome stop gap measure, but it is not enough,” says the president of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA). The deal — which requires Parliamentary approval… Read More
Most of us learned early that you need to keep your promises if you want to be trusted. In politics, however, promises are rarely kept; instead, they’re wiggled out of, often after an election, giving politicians a terrible reputation in the trust department. In the last several years, supply management has not prevented Canada negotiating… Read More
Three years into the Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement between Canada and the EU, Canadian exporters are fed up with the EU using non-tariff trade barriers, red tape, and protectionist measures to keep Canadian products out of the union. In what was supposed to be an incredibly lucrative, two-way exchange of goods, CETA has delivered… Read More
The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA) has asked four cabinet ministers to push for progress on the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), on the three year anniversary of the agreement coming into force. In a letter sent to Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade Mary Ng, Minister of Finance Chrystia… Read More