a Canadian Meat Business exclusive by Scott Taylor
Lee, from Fir Mountain, Sask., is a University of Saskatchewan Animal Science graduate. These days, Lee’s brother runs the family ranch while Ryder leads the SCA staff as they work on behalf of the province’s beef cattle producers. His job is to “strategically address the policy, production, communication, promotion, legal, and financial issues that will help to strengthen the beef industry in Saskatchewan.”
He does his best not to think much about United States President Donald Trump and the President’s desire to “renegotiate” the North American Free Trade Agreement, a renegotiation that could begin as early as August of this year. He tries to think even less about Trump’s threat to pull the United States right out of the agreement.
“What happens if the U.S. pulls out of NAFTA?” Lee responded when asked about the hypothetical death of the tri-nation agreement signed by Canada, the United States and Mexico in 1993.
“That’s a great question. Maybe the question of the day. Must say, I don’t know. Do we go back to CUSFTA, which was the agreement before NAFTA? Who knows? I will say this, though, uncertainty is a terrible thing. It’s not good for any business. But then again, fretting about ‘maybe something is going to happen’ isn’t a good use of anyone’s time, either.
“We just need to keep reminding our American friends how good NAFTA has been for them. Although there is a $12 billion trade deficit in the United States, when you consider Canada’s population and the population of the U.S. we’re buying $714 of goods and services per person from the United States while they’re buying $69 per person from us. NAFTA is a good deal for the United States, despite what some politicians might want you to believe.”
“Trump has many Americans convinced that trade is bad”
We are living in a strange new world. Real Estate Investor and Reality TV star Donald J. Trump – a man who paid out $25 million in a fraud settlement on a scheme for a fake “university” and is currently under investigation for colluding with Russia to influence the 2016 U.S. election – has been elected President of the United States. He has been called many things in the nearly four months since he’s become the leader of the Free World. It is, however, disconcerting that many of those descriptions are unflattering: From loud and obnoxious to fabricator and outright liar to inconsistent and even unhinged, the new President has brought a governing style that has the entire world on edge. And the world is on edge because the President of the United States might be emotionally and mentally unstable.
He rose to power for many reasons — too many for us to analyze here. However, as part of his many campaign promises, he was either going to pull out of the NAFTA or, depending on the day, was going to “renegotiate” it.
Naturally, that has left business people in the United States, Mexico and Canada, in an almost constant state of uncertainty. And not a good uncertainty. After all, according to the United States Department of Commerce and even the Office of the United States Trade Representative (recently confirmed 70-year-old lawyer Robert Lighthizer, who has, in the past, been more hostile toward China than Canada and Mexico), free trade in North America has been good for all three countries.
It has been especially good for Canada and the United States.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, American exports of goods and services to Canada supported an estimated 1.6 million jobs in 2015 (latest data available) in the United States. Although Canada has the world’s 10th-largest economy, it represents the largest market for U.S. goods and services, thanks to a shared border and a longstanding alliance.
Last year, total trade in goods and services between the U.S. and Canada came to more than $663 billion – $575 billion worth of goods and some $88 billion in services.
That amounted to a merchandise trade deficit in the United States of some $11 billion, one of America’s smallest deficits with any trading partner. By contrast, U.S. merchandise trade with China last year — roughly the same total value as with Canada — left the U.S. with a trade deficit of $366 billion, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
Source: Meatbusiness
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