Executives from the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association took part in the Five Nations Beef Alliance annual meeting last week in Texas.
The alliance brings together cattle producer leaders from Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.
John Masswohl the Canadian Cattleman's Association’s Director of International and Government affairs says meetings like this are important for the global industry.
"It's really an opportunity to build relationships between cattle producers in different countries. We talk about global trends, we talk about trade agreements, we talk about sustainability, and it's good to have common positions in all of those areas. There's also a strong component in terms of developing young leaders."
Together the group represents producers from countries that account for one-third of global beef production and approximately half of global beef exports.
The Cattle sector has been enjoying strong prices, as cattle prices continued higher last week establishing new all-time high record prices.
"In response to these high prices, producers are going to produce more cattle and they're going to have more beef, and the only way we can keep prices going is by continuing to open more access. When this agreement comes into effect in probably about two years, it's going to be just perfectly timed in terms of where we are going to be in our expansion of the cattle herd," says Masswohl.
CETA will eliminate tariffs for Canadian goods entering the EU market, providing them preferential access.
The new Canada European Trade Agreement will mean some changes for the cattle sector, and Masswohl says the EU is a key market.
"For Europe, the cattle productions has to be without hormones, without the growth promoting technologies, and that does cost producers about 20% more to raise those cattle. But we look at the value of the European market, which can return probably somewhere around $12 a kilo, compared to some of our other export markets like Japan is maybe around $7 or $8 a kilo."
The EU, with its 28 member states, 500 million people and annual economic activity of almost $18 trillion dollars is the world’s largest economy, bigger than the United States.