Secretary Sonny Perdue will make his first international trip as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture today, Monday, June 5, to Toronto, Canada.
“The bilateral U.S.-Canada relationship is important to the prosperity of both of our countries and I look forward to strengthening this bond with our neighbors to the north moving forward,” said Perdue.
Perdue will meet with Canadian Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay and other Canadian officials to discuss priority agricultural issues regarding Canada and the United States.
In addition, Perdue will participate in the 10th anniversary conference of the Southeastern United States-Canadian Provinces Alliance (SEUS-CP), of which he was a founding member while serving as Governor of Georgia. At a downtown Toronto restaurant, he will also kick off what will be a two-week-long event showcasing U.S. foods and beverages.
As two of the world’s largest agricultural producers with a shared border, Canada and the United States are key markets for each other’s agricultural products. In 2016, the United States exported $20.2 billion of agricultural products to Canada, making it our second-largest agricultural export market, while Canada exported $21 billion of agricultural products to the United States.