Photo: Thinkstock

Slow U.S. corn shipments could pressure supply forecasts

Reuters – The United States has already secured a record corn export campaign for the nearly concluded season, but the shipments are unlikely to match the government’s current forecast because the pace has recently been too slow. Disappointing export inspections last week – a marketing year low – might be an indication that the U.S.

A view near the Canadian end of the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor and Detroit and is considered one of North America’s busiest trade routes. (Steven_Kriemadis/iStock/Getty Images)

U.S. extends travel curbs at land borders through Aug. 21

Washington | Reuters — The U.S. government on Wednesday extended the closure of land borders with Canada and Mexico to non-essential travel such as tourism through Aug. 21 even as officials debate whether to require visitors to have received a COVID-19 vaccine. The latest 30-day extension by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) came after


(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Canada to admit vaccinated U.S. tourists

Border to open Aug. 9 after more than 16 months

Ottawa | Reuters — Canada on Monday said it would allow fully vaccinated U.S. tourists into the country starting from Aug. 9 after the COVID-19 pandemic forced an unprecedented 16-month ban that many businesses complained was crippling them. Inoculated visitors from countries other than the United States will be permitted to enter beginning on Sept.






(Canada Border Services Agency video screengrab)

Canada taking first step toward lifting border restrictions

U.S. border restrictions still in place until at least June 21

Ottawa | Reuters — Canada on Wednesday took a cautious first step toward easing COVID-19 border restrictions, saying it was prepared to relax quarantine protocols for fully vaccinated citizens returning home starting in early July. Canada’s air and land borders have allowed for only essential travel since March of last year, and Canadians coming home

Screengrab from a 2018 video showing cold storage at the JBS beef slaughter and packing plant at Brooks, Alta. (JBS video via YouTube)

JBS plants reopen as White House blames Russia over hack

Washington/Chicago | Reuters — JBS SA employees started returning to U.S. meat plants on Wednesday, a day after the company’s beef operations stopped following a ransomware attack, disrupting meat production in North America and Australia. A notorious Russia-linked hacking group is behind the cyberattack against JBS, a source familiar with the matter said. Brazil’s JBS


Workers disinfect a conveyor belt, part of the measures installed to help slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Seaboard Foods pork-processing plant in Guymon, Oklahoma, May 17, 2020.

U.S. court slams brakes on Trump-era hog slaughter line-speed rule

Union cheers ruling, saying faster line speeds harm processing plant workers

Reuters – The largest U.S. meat-packing union is celebrating a recent victory in Federal Court that it said invalidated a Trump-era rule allowing hog slaughter plants to run without line-speed limits. A lawsuit brought against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and three of its local chapters

Editor’s Take: International relationship management

As an exporting nation Canada will always be dependent on maintaining decent relationships with other countries around the globe — and that’s frequently easier said than done. Think of our closest neighbour the U.S. A close relationship with it is inescapable, as it’s both right next door and an economic and military superpower. Ordinarily that