Minister of International Trade Maninder Sidhu concluded his trip to Singapore and Vietnam, the federal government said Wednesday.

WHY IT MATTERS: The Indo-Pacific region is seen as a growth market for Canadian agri-food trade. Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy is also touted by the government as a key part of the country’s economic future.

Sidhu met with industry leaders in Vietnam to discuss strengthening supply chains and attended an agri-food showcase hosted by supermarket chain BRG Mart, which carries Canadian products like apples, oatmeal and frozen beef.

With an eight per cent growth trajectory, “Vietnam will require enhanced food security through Canadian agri-food expertise,” Sidhu said in a Feb. 18 news release.

He also spoke about the work by the Canadian and Vietnamese ministries of agriculture to resolve access issues, reopen markets to Canadian salmon and safeguard market access for Canadian pork in case of an outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) in Canada.

In both countries, Sidhu met with government officials to strengthen bilateral trade ties and emphasize the importance of a free trade agreement between Canada and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Sidhu announced $7.3 million in funding for the Vietnam Initiative for Strengthening Trade as part of Canada’s commitment to support that country’s economic and trade-related legal reform.

He also announced US$20 million (C$27.4 million) in funding to support Vietnamese farmers and agribusiness to adopt more sustainable practices.

The Indo-Pacific is Canada’s second-largest regional merchandise export market after the U.S. Vietnam is Canada’s largest merchandise trading partner among ASEAN countries.

Sidhu has previously sought out trade deals in Indonesia and the Philippines as well.

The post International trade minister visits Singapore, Vietnam appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“This trip is about promoting these products, advancing trade discussions, and building relationships that will create new opportunities for our hardworking producers back home,” MacDonald said in a July 28 news release.

While in the region, MacDonald will meet with senior government government officials, local and Canadian business leaders and other stakeholders. The minister leaves this week and will be in the Indo-Pacific for about a week, a spokesperson for his office said.

The Indo-Pacific is the world’s fastest growing region and home to six of Canada’s top 13 trading partners, the release said.

Canada opened an Indo-Pacific trade office in Manila, Philippines in early 2024 as part of a plan to increase Canadian agri-food exports to the region.

The post Federal agriculture minister to visit Indo-Pacific to talk trade appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The outbreak that killed 35,297 pigs in a herd of 285,034 on a farm located on Bulan island was detected on April 1 and confirmed on April 28, the Paris-based WOAH said, citing Indonesian authorities.

African swine fever (ASF) is not dangerous to humans but is fatal for pigs. It has plagued China for years, with an initial wave during 2018 and 2019 killing millions of pigs and leading to a dramatic decline in meat output that roiled global markets. China is facing a recent surge in infections this year.

The source of the Indonesian outbreak is still unknown but veterinary authorities told WOAH that humans, vehicles, feed, flies and wild boar may have played an important role in the introduction of ASF on the farm.

The investigation started after the disease was detected by the Singapore Food Agency in imported pigs, they also said.

Indonesia is already up against another major livestock disease outbreak, after foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) turned up there in April last year. The country had previously been considered FMD-free by WOAH since 1990.

— Reporting for Reuters by Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris.

The post Indonesia confirms African swine fever outbreak appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The meat, to be sold as nuggets, will be priced at premium chicken prices when it first launches in a restaurant in Singapore “in the very near term,” co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick said.

Demand for alternatives to regular meat is surging due to concerns about health, animal welfare and the environment. Plant-based substitutes, popularized by the likes of Beyond Meat , Impossible Foods and Quorn, increasingly feature on supermarket shelves and restaurant menus.

But so-called clean or cultured meat, which is grown from animal muscle cells in a lab, is still at a nascent stage given high production costs.

Singapore, a city state of 5.7 million, currently only produces about 10 per cent of its food but has set out ambitious plans to raise that over the next decade by supporting high-tech farming and new means of food production.

Josh Tetrick said the San Francisco-based firm was also talking to U.S. regulators but that Singapore was a “good bit” ahead of the United States.

“I would imagine what will happen is the U.S., Western Europe and others will see what Singapore has been able to do, the rigours of the framework that they put together. And I would imagine that they will try to use it as a template to put their own framework together,” he said in an interview.

The Singapore Food Agency said it had reviewed data relating to process, manufacturing control and safety testing before granting approval.

Eat Just said it will manufacture the product in Singapore, where it also plans to start making a mung bean-based egg substitute it has been selling commercially in the United States.

Founded in 2011, Eat Just counts Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing and Singapore state investor Temasek among its backers. It has raised more than $300 million since its inception, Tetrick said, and is valued at roughly $1.2 billion (all figures US$).

It is targeting profitability at an operating income level before the end of 2021 and hopes to go public soon after, he added.

Globally more than two dozen firms are testing lab-grown fish, beef and chicken, hoping to break into an unproven segment of the alternative meat market, which Barclays estimates could be worth $140 billion by 2029.

Competitors have also attracted some eye-catching investors.

U.S.-based Memphis Meats raised funds this year in a deal led by Japan’s SoftBank Group and Temasek, and also counts Bill Gates and Richard Branson among its backers.

Singapore’s Shiok Meats, which aims to become the first company to sell lab-grown shrimp, is backed by Henry Soesanto of Philippines’ Monde Nissin Corp., which also owns Quorn.

— Reporting for Reuters by Aradhana Aravindan, John Geddie and Anshuman Daga.

The post Singapore approves sale of lab-grown meat in world first appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The escalating clash over trade between Washington and some of its closest global partners cast a cloud over Trump’s efforts to make history in nuclear talks in Singapore on Tuesday with Kim Jong Un of North Korea, one of America’s bitterest foes.

Having left the Group of Seven summit in Canada early, Trump’s announcement that he was backing out of the joint communique torpedoed what appeared to be a fragile consensus on the trade dispute between Washington and its top allies.

“Fair trade is now to be called fool trade if it is not reciprocal,” said Trump, who flew from Canada to Singapore on Sunday to prepare for the first-ever summit between a U.S. and North Korean leader.

“Sorry, we cannot let our friends, or enemies, take advantage of us on trade anymore. We must put the American worker first!”

The communique, which had appeared to have papered over the cracks that surfaced so uncharacteristically at the G7, said the leaders of the U.S., Canada, Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Japan were agreed on the need for “free, fair, and mutually beneficial trade” and the importance of fighting protectionism.

“We strive to reduce tariff barriers, non-tariff barriers and subsidies,” the statement said, which came despite Washington appearing intent on taking more punitive steps on trade.

Trump’s extraordinary outburst on Monday against NATO allies, the European Union and Canada appeared aimed at striking a chord with voters who support his “America First” agenda.

At the same time, however, it put Trump in the position of going into a crucial summit at odds with countries he needs on his side to pressure North Korea to move toward dismantling a nuclear arsenal that threatens the U.S.

“Not fair to the people of America! $800 billion trade deficit,” he said. “Why should I, as president of the United State, allow countries to continue to make massive trade surpluses, as they have for decades, while our farmers, workers + taxpayers have such a big and unfair price to pay?”

It was left to Trump’s aides to figure out how to explain Trump’s airing of grievances against trading partners instead of focusing on his coming talks with Kim, which the president’s supporters hope will provide him with a major foreign policy win.

Irritants will be overcome

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praised European countries for helping to bring about the North Korea summit, alluding to their enforcement of sanctions against Pyongyang. He expressed confidence that U.S. relations with other G7 countries would continue to move forward, despite the weekend clash in Canada.

“There are always irritants in relationships,” Pompeo told reporters. He dismissed as “ludicrous” the notion that Kim would decide he could not trust the U.S. because of the G7 dispute.

White House spokesman Raj Shah said Trump was “rattling the cages right now on trade,” insisting there was no reason to believe there would be any negative fallout for the North Korea summit. “These are really unrelated baskets of issues.”

But one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged: “The timing for all this is not very good at all.”

The prospect that Trump could be moving toward an even greater protectionist trade policy is likely to chill financial markets worried about tit-for-tat escalation that could lead to a full-blown global trade war.

“Business confidence, and subsequently capital spending, is at risk if this tension continues through the summer,” said Tai Hui, J.P. Morgan Asset Management Chief Market Strategist for Asia Pacific. “This could cast a long shadow over global growth, which has rebounded in recent weeks after a soft start to the year.”

Nevertheless, markets were relatively calm on Monday after an early wobble.

Trump also lambasted fellow members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for paying disproportionately less than the United States to maintain the Western alliance.

“The U.S. pays close to the entire cost of NATO — protecting many of these same countries that rip us off on trade (they pay only a fraction of the cost – and laugh!),” he tweeted. “The European Union had a $151 billion surplus – should pay much more for military!”

“Germany pays 1 percent (slowly) of GDP towards NATO, while we pay 4 percent of a much larger GDP. Does anybody believe that makes sense?”

“We protect Europe (which is good) at great financial loss, and then get unfairly clobbered on trade. Change is coming!”

Trump also renewed attacks on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had hosted the G7 meeting in Quebec.

“Justin acts hurt when called out!” the U.S. president said in his latest tweet. On Saturday, he called the Canadian prime minister “very dishonest and weak” and added that “Our Tariffs are in response to his of 270% on dairy!”

Place in heaven

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow accused Trudeau of betraying Trump with “polarizing” statements on trade policy that risked making the U.S. leader look weak ahead of the historic summit with Kim.

“(Trudeau) really kind of stabbed us in the back,” Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council who had accompanied Trump to Canada, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Trade adviser Peter Navarro told Fox News Sunday that “there is a special place in hell for any leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy” with Trump.

Pompeo, at the Singapore briefing, pointedly ignored a reporter’s question about Navarro’s comment and left the podium while he was being pressed for an answer.

Trudeau, in Quebec City for bilateral meetings with non-G7 leaders after the summit, did not comment as he arrived.

But he got direct personal support from some European leaders.

British Prime Minister Theresa May “is fully supportive” of Trudeau and his leadership, a senior UK government source said, while European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted: “There is a special place in heaven for @JustinTrudeau.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom; additional reporting by Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore and Marius Zaharia in Hong Kong; writing by Simon Cameron-Moore.

The post Trump’s tweets spew ire on Trudeau, EU, NATO appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Bayer said it had struck a deal with Temasek under which it would issue shares with an entitlement to dividends as of Jan. 1, 2017 at an at-market price.

Together with its existing holding in Bayer, Temasek would own about four per cent in Bayer after the transaction.

“Temasek takes equity positions in leading companies globally and is a long-term investor,” Bayer CEO Werner Baumann said in a statement.

“This investment affirms our business strategy including the proposed acquisition of Monsanto, as well as Bayer’s strong growth prospects.”

Bayer added that the proceeds from the placement would be taken into account when setting the size of the previously announced rights issue to fund the Monsanto takeover.

Bernstein analysts earlier this months put the expected rights issue at seven billion to nine billion euros in volume, while brokerage Baader Helvea estimated it to be worth four billion to 6.5 billion euros, meaning Temasek is footing a sizable part of the bill.

A company spokesman said Bayer had not yet decided when to carry out the rights issue.

It has previously said it would go ahead with the transaction once it has sufficient certainty on the antitrust clearance.

Bayer last week unveiled plans to sell its digital farming business to BASF in what a source familiar with the matter said was part of an outline deal with the U.S. Justice Department to secure antitrust approval.

It already has the conditional go-ahead from European regulators.

Bayer did not give a per-share price but at 31 million new shares created for Temasek, that would amount to 96.77 euros (C$150.69) each. Bayer shares closed 0.7 per cent lower at 97.98 euros on Monday ahead of the announcement.

The head of Temasek Europe told a German paper in August that the sovereign wealth fund wanted to make acquisitions in Germany, citing agriculture, pharma and biotech as target industries, among other sectors.

The fund is being advised by Michael Diekmann, former CEO of insurer Allianz, and Franz Fehrenbach, supervisory board chairman at Bosch.

Temasek was not planning to take an overly proactive role, instead aiming for minority stakes and leaving business to management, Lee was quoted as saying at the time.

— Ludwig Burger is a Reuters correspondent covering the European chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors from Frankfurt.

The post Singapore firm hikes Bayer stake in share sale appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Belgian negotiators failed on Tuesday to break a deadlock between federal and regional authorities that is blocking the trade pact and will resume early on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said.

Reynders, who handles trade for the federal government, said six hours of talks with regional leaders, including that of Wallonia which has vetoed federal support for the Canada/EU CETA pact, had made some progress and the negotiators would try to finalize on Wednesday a common Belgian position to put to EU officials.

The court case in question could set a legal precedent related to an EU trade pact with Singapore, which may make it easier for Brussels to conclude future deals without needing unanimous backing from every government and parliament. However, it can do little for the Canada agreement.

As it is, the government of Wallonia, with its seat in the ancient fortress city of Namur, has been likened to Asterix the Gaul defying the Romans, for resisting pressure to let Belgian federal leaders sign the CETA deal with Canada on Thursday.

The CETA treaty concerns not just trade tariffs — a power long centralized with the EU in Brussels — but also access to services markets, particularly some public services, where national governments jealously guard their authority. That opens it to the wide-ranging veto power of EU states and regions.

But a legal opinion by the advocate general as early as December, followed by a ruling by the European Court of Justice next spring, should clarify the situation. It will determine whether a similar treaty with Singapore falls within the “exclusive competence” of the EU or is “mixed,” needing approval in national and some regional parliaments.

Trade was once an area of abstruse inquiry for policy wonks. Now efforts to draft an ambitious trade deal with the U.S. known as TTIP have energized mass campaigns against that pact and CETA, notably by labour unions and environmentalists.

The European Commission, the EU executive, began talks with Ottawa seven years ago under a mandate from the Council of member states. It had wanted CETA to be approved by the Council as an EU-exclusive deal. But pressure from states, including Germany, which sought to appease anti-globalization protesters, led the commission to accept it as “mixed.”

Hoping to limit such problems in future and set a legal precedent, the Commission asked the European Court if the Singapore deal, agreed in 2014 but not yet ratified, is EU-exclusive or not.

Wallonia’s Socialist-led parliament has stressed the mixed nature of the deal. It cited concern about its impact on public services in twice voting against CETA — exercising its powers under Belgium’s highly devolved constitution to prevent the federal government from signing up.

Asked last week if it was a mistake to classify CETA as mixed, an irritated Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker made clear he thinks blame for that lies with hesitant EU governments.

The CETA debacle and the court ruling are being closely watched by countries the EU has concluded deals with — Vietnam — or is in free trade talks with, such as the U.S. and Japan, or those it aims to engage, such as Australia and New Zealand.

“We are all waiting anxiously for the outcome,” said one diplomat of a would-be EU trade agreement partner.

The EU’s Lisbon treaty of 2009 says the EU has exclusive competence in “common commercial policy,” meaning trade, and sets out voting rules for member states’ agreement. The Commission negotiates but needs the Council of states to agree.

If declared an EU exclusive competence, then trade deals like the Singapore agreement would not need to be approved by some 40 national and regional legislative bodies, although Belgium might still feel it had to listen to its regions.

Instead, in principle, a deal could be agreed by the 28 national governments in the European Council, either by a majority vote or, in some cases, by unanimity.

“Going mixed means you are going to kill a deal. There’s no way you can get through every single parliament,” said Hosuk Lee-Makiyama of the Brussels trade policy think-tank ECIPE.

The CETA fiasco threatens further the credibility of the EU, already battered by Britain’s vote to leave the bloc and disputes over migrants. It also highlights difficulties that post-Brexit London may face in cutting a trade deal with the EU.

Gianni Pittella, the centre-left leader in the European Parliament, whose group includes the Socialists who run Wallonia, urged reforms to prevent EU policy being blocked.

Guy Verhofstadt, former Belgian premier and liberal leader in the EU parliament, called for an end to mixed deals: “The Council can decide that it is a purely European agreement… That would be a step forward in European integration.”

— Philip Blenkinsop is Reuters’ chief correspondent for Belgium and Luxembourg. Additional reporting for Reuters by Alastair Macdonald.

The post Court may help EU sidestep lone-wolf resistance to trade deals appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

As food giants face growing pressure to offer healthier produce, Southeast Asian poultry firm Kee Song Group says its use of “good” bacteria in feed and water means it can meet one the industry’s biggest challenges: how to mass produce drug- and hormone-free poultry at a reasonable price.

A series of scandals in the last few years from melamine-tainted milk powder in China, horsemeat supplied as beef in Europe and growth drugs causing lameness in U.S. cattle has triggered a consumer backlash over food standards and safety.

In Kee Song’s Malaysian poultry farm, 20,000 chickens rest on sawdust in the dimly lit barns, with feed and water laced with probiotics being automatically pumped into feeding pans.

As well as playing Mozart, lighting is used in a bid to keep the birds tranquil with neon-blue lighting turned on when the birds are taken for slaughter.

“Look at the environment, chickens stay healthy and happy here,” the firm’s chairman Ong Kee Song told Reuters.

“Even the droppings don’t smell,” added Ong, who has been a vegetarian for 17 years after a stay at a Buddhist temple.

Traditional chicken farms are notorious for producing noxious fumes as well as loud noise from squawking birds.

By not using drugs, the poultry farms need to maintain stringent cleanliness measures to avoid the risk of infection and it takes three days more than conventionally produced chickens to attain a commercially viable weight of 1.8 to 2.0 kg.

As well as supplying supermarkets, Kee Song also sells to some restaurants in Singapore, including French restaurant Cocotte, where the chicken is used for a signature dish.

The post Mozart and mood lighting, a healthy prescription for chickens? appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.