Full Ratification of USMCA Expected by Spring-Summer

Dec 16, 2019

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The Vice-President of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute expects the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to be ratified by all three countries by late spring or early summer. Earlier this week, with the support of the Democratic Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, an agreement was reached which will move forward U.S. ratification of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

The modified USMCA is expected to be approved by the House by year's end before moving on to the Senate where it will be dealt with in January-February and then on to the President.

Colin Robertson, the Vice President and a Fellow of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, acknowledges, because there have been several changes to agreement, the amended deal will still need to be approved by the governments in all three countries.

Clip-Colin Robertson-Canadian Global Affairs Institute:

In Mexico they had ratified and the President had signed off on the legislation earlier this year but, because this results in significant change to that which the Mexicans have passed, they too will have to pass amendments to the legislation they passed earlier this year.

In the case of Canada we had introduced legislation based on the original NAFTA in June but, because we have a new Parliament, we were going to have to re-introduce the legislation in any event. Now the legislation will be introduced likely the end of January early February and will be considered in our minority Parliament.

My sense is that it will pass pretty quickly in the Canadian Parliament because almost all of the Premiers are on side with this and I think there'll be enough Conservatives who see this as being advantageous. I'm not sure where the Greens will be or the NDP. The NDP will likely vote against as they usually do against trade agreements and the Bloc, I'm not sure where they'll be.

Source : Farmscape

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.