CFA Happy To See CUSMA Ratified, Still Concerned About Supply Management

Mar 17, 2020

The Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) was ratified last week.

Keith Currie is 1st Vice President with the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA).

"A deal is better than no deal, however, we'll still working out how that's going to look for our supply managed system, with respect to any compensation for the loss that they negotiated away during this deal," he said. "By in large, for most of agriculture, it's going to be a positive. It's going to mean that our products are still going to flow back and forth between the three countries, that is a positive for us in agriculture because we are such large exporting nation."

Currie commented on the timing of the ratification.

"COVID-19 certainly is amplifying the need for agreements, no doubt, but I think just in general for trade, the U.S. is our largest trading partner. Getting this deal done to maintain that flow of goods and services, not only through all three countries, but in particular with the U.S., who we do the majority of our trade. I think it was just important to get the deal done."

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