Editor’s note: this story was updated on April 29 with new information and a quote from the Dairy Processors Association of Canada and Dairy Farmers of Canada. The leader of the Opposition in the Senate of Canada is accusing the governing Liberals of breaking a promise to delay the implementation of the new North American… Read More
Canada has a new ambassador to the United States. Kirsten Hillman, who has been serving as acting ambassador to the U.S. since August 2019, has been appointed to the key diplomatic post, announced Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday. “Today, we are announcing Kirsten Hillman as our country’s next ambassador to the United States. When… Read More
Editor’s note: Bill C-4 received Royal Assent Friday (see below). In the interest of expediency in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreak, Canada’s House of Commons tabled a single motion to: adopt four bills, an opposition motion, cancel all committee meetings, and adjourn. The motion passed. Included in the list is Bill C-4, the bill… Read More
Many of Canada’s smaller farm equipment manufacturers are at risk of being left in the cold by the main U.S.-based manufacturers if the Canadian government doesn’t change its intellectual property rules, say representatives from a Saskatchewan-based company that builds attachments for harvesting equipment. Honey Bee Manufacturing’s general manager, Jamie Pegg, and Scott Smith, manager of… Read More
United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue held a press conference at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association convention this week in San Antonio, Texas, to talk about the U.S. government’s work on trade, dairy access, and more. As one of the biggest supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump’s agenda, Secretary Purdue boasted about the… Read More
Beef industry leaders from Canada, United States, and Mexico are meeting in San Antonio, Texas this week at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Cattle Industry Convention. Representatives from all three countries discussed the progress on ratifying the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. With Mexico and the U.S. ratifying the deal, Canada is the lone country left… Read More
The Canadian government has introduced legislation to implement the new trade deal between Canada, the United States, and Mexico — the last of the three countries to do so. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland tabled Bill C-4, formally known as An Act to implement the Agreement between Canada, the United States of America and the… Read More
The Conservative Party of Canada is again looking for a new leader, just two years after Andrew Scheer stepped up. Now that the rules of engagement have been laid out, featuring some significant changes from the last leadership race, names are being added — and not added — to the list of contenders. Jeff English,… Read More
With the U.S. Senate voting 89-10 in favour, the USMCA has received its final required congressional approval before hitting President Donald Trump’s desk. It is expected that President Trump will sign the agreement next week. Now that the biggest hurdle of U.S. Congress has been cleared, all eyes are focused on Canada to ratify the… Read More
In a great example of rare bipartisan support, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favour of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in landslide fashion. One day removed from an impeachment vote of President Donald Trump, the USMCA passed 385-41. The trade agreement will now move to the U.S. Senate, where a favourable outcome is… Read More
With U.S. Democrats agreeing to changes on the USMCA, there is now a path for the agreement to seek ratification in all three countries. After the deal was announced, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food Marie Claude Bibeau and USDA Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue spoke about the agreement on the phone, with Bibeau later taking… Read More
The new NAFTA (USMCA) has a path to ratification in the U.S. congress now that the Democrats and the White House have come to terms on negotiated compromises. Both Canada and Mexico will ratify the deals in the coming weeks with relative ease, while the U.S. focuses all its trade threats on the European Union… Read More
After two years of negotiating, debate, and threats of destruction, the renegotiated NAFTA deal has a clear path to a congressional ratification with the Democrats and the U.S. President agreeing to the required changes. For agriculture, the USMCA — new NAFTA or CUSMA, whatever you want to call it — has always been about stability,… Read More
When Chrystia Freeland, then International Trade minister, was thrust into the NAFTA renegotiation with the Trump administration, she probably thought that would be the greatest challenge of her political career. Little did she know that there was a greater challenge awaiting her back home in Canada just a few years later — that challenge is… Read More
It’s entirely possible that the United States Congress could ratify the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement (USMCA/CUSMA) before Christmas, says Jim Wiesemeyer, Washington analyst for ProFarmer, as the votes are there — but will they? There is still work to be done in Congress ahead of the holidays, Wiesemeyer says, including passing a spending bill, so ratification before… Read More