Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump speaking at a joint news conference earlier in February 2017.

Comment: Trump’s milk shake

Our dairy producers are now facing change, forced upon them by outside forces

For the first time U.S. President Donald Trump has acknowledged that he knows of the existence of supply management, also known by the global community as Canada’s milk cartel. For years dairy farmers in Canada have been resistant to any change or reform to their policies. With NAFTA 2.0 on its way, Canadian dairy farmers


“... clearly they’re experiencing some difficulties in their own markets and those
are issues that they have to resolve for themselves in a constructive way domestically rather than trying to blame other countries for their problems.” – David Wiens, Dairy Farmers of Manitoba chair

Manitoba dairy: Trump comments ‘not based on fact’

The Dairy Farmers of Manitoba is defending its industry’s supply management and pricing strategies

As the U.S. and Canada trade verbal shots over supply management and protectionism while dairy groups in New Zealand and Australia say they’ll support any U.S. WTO actions, Manitoba dairy producers are standing pat. The Dairy Farmers of Manitoba (DFM) says it is still confidant that the federal government is behind it despite the fierce

Upcoming NAFTA negotiations could spill a lot of milk for dairy producers — and that’s just the beginning according to two well-known commentators.

NAFTA negotiations key for farmers, say commentators

In separate speeches Andrew Coyne and Sylvain Charlebois predicted 
while supply management is under the gun, there’s more at stake

A U.S.-led effort to renegotiate NAFTA could see supply management scrapped, but that’s just the beginning, say two Canadian commentators. Speaking separately at the Canadian Global Crops Symposium April 12, the National Post’s Andrew Coyne and Dalhousie University’s Sylvain Charlebois both said the North American Free Trade Agreement could provide the pretext for major changes


Non-tariff trade barriers remain major obstacle

Non-tariff trade barriers remain major obstacle

They’ve become a favourite tool to block trade now that tariffs are out of fashion

While tariffs on agri-food products are declining around the world, non-tariff trade barriers are sprouting up like weeds, the Commons agriculture has been told. “While we are seeing progress in lowering tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers are frequently waiting, or newly created ones are set in place to be the next wave of protectionism that we

U.S. Senate building

U.S. push for NAFTA renegotiation coming but could be a slow starter

The only agriculture issues that are coming up so far are dairy quotas and country-of-origin labelling for meat

Reports emanating from Washington suggest the White House will announce a proposal for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement in mid-March. Congressional leaders say they will consider it but want to see the reasoning behind the initiative before giving their support. There’s a lot of doubt about whether the administration is actually ready to


Donald J. Trump

Promises made, promises kept

U.S. farmers are reaping the whirlwind of their bargain with Trump

Of all the words used to describe President Donald J. Trump during his first weeks in office — bold, boastful, alternative facts — here are two that almost no person or pundit uttered: promise keeper. Love him or loathe him, Trump took no time in checking off key items from his unconventional campaign’s list of

U.S. trade rumblings unnerve Canada’s beef producers

U.S. trade rumblings unnerve Canada’s beef producers

Uncertainty rules as 
Trump eyes trade deals, 
but nobody is sure if Canada is in his line of fire

An atmosphere of uncertainty hangs over the Canadian cattle industry as it awaits a possible trade war with the U.S. The newly minted U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly signalled his intention to either scrap or renegotiate NAFTA, which has helped make the U.S. Canada’s largest market for beef and cattle exports. A more immediate


MacAulay pitches importance of Canada-U.S. agri-food trade

At a recent meeting of U.S. agriculture legislators he pointed out the balanced nature 
of agriculture and food trade between the two countries

Amid rumblings of U.S. action against Canadian agri-food imports, Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay recently spelled out the importance of cross-border trade to American agriculture leaders. In a speech in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to the annual meeting of the State Agriculture Leaders and the Legislative Agriculture Chairs Summit, MacAulay said in 2016, “$50 billion in agriculture

CAFTA’s Claire Citeau says the organization is less enthusiastic about Canada’s trade deal with Europe, unless outstanding issues can be cleared up prior to implementation.


CAFTA less enamoured with Europe trade deal

Deal doesn’t solve trade barriers, making it less attractive to the sector, longtime trade champion says


The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance says its support for a Canada-Europe trade deal is now conditional. The longtime enthusiastic backer of the deal says high tariffs and other headaches won’t be quickly resolved. Claire Citeau, CAFTA’s executive director, told the Commons trade committee that it expected the deal would generate $1.5 billion in new Canadian