A partner with Polar Pork fears escalation of the Canada U.S. trade war will jeopardise the stability of agriculture and hurt consumers on both sides of the border. In response to the United States's imposition of a 50 percent tariff on Canadian imports, the Government of Canada has announced counter-tariffs of 15, 25 and 50 per cent on targeted U.S. products effective September 15th.
Florian Possberg, a partner with Polar Pork, says pork has not been targeted but he fears that could happen if the trade war escalates.
Quote-Florian Possberg-Polar Pork:
There's a lot of not only live animals but meat products that are processed on one side of the border or the other and there's a good reason why that happens.
To have economies of scale, processing hams, for example, that may happen in the United States because they've got large ham processors that can do a great job with that.
We may have other areas that we're very proficient at and so, over time, we've allowed our industry to be integrated and, if there's something that cuts that off, that could be very harmful to our whole meat industry. There's an old adage that whatever should be, eventually will be. People's egos get in the way and sometimes common sense is not being employed.
So, eventually, we'll come to a new equilibrium based on good business practices. But, like in any war, what are the casualties along the way before that new equilibrium happens?That's really the problem that we're facing now. There's a lot of uncertainty and we just don't know how this thing could end.But we know that there's a possibility that it's not going to be very nice.
Possberg suggests we would be better off to cooperate and work together for the betterment of both sides.
Source : Farmscape.ca