Manitoba pork producers are welcoming action taken by the provincial government to cushion the impact on agriculture of the escalating Canada United States trade war. On August 22nd a 50 percent U.S. tariff took effect on a broad range of Canadian imports prompting the Government of Canada to announce dollar-for-dollar retaliatory counter-tariffs to take effect September 8th.
Cam Dahl, the General Manager of Manitoba Pork, acknowledges pork and pigs are still flowing into the U.S. tariff-free but we don't know if that's going to change and that uncertainty is putting a damper on the ability of producers to invest in new capacity on the farm as well as the ability of processors to invest in new processing capacity.
Quote-Cam Dahl-Manitoba Pork:
We saw a recent announcement on August 28th from the government of Manitoba that was really designed to help do two things. One is to support industries that are directly impacted by the tariffs. But there's a second part to that suite of programming that was announced and that's to help support measures to increase the capacity here in Manitoba, things like supporting increased finishing spaces here in Manitoba to support increased processing here in Manitoba.
Those steps will really help us diversify our markets and also help to build that resiliency especially in our rural communities. Things like the changes to the Manitoba Agriculture Services Corporation's loan guarantee program, that has increased significantly. The percentage of a new capital projects that can be covered by that programming has been increased significantly. Those are very positive moves and something that we have been working with the government of Manitoba for some time.I was really pleased to see those kinds of measures included in the support package from the government of Manitoba.
Dahl notes Manitoba Pork continues to engage with partners across the United States to impress the importance of an integrated North American hog sector upon federal, state, and local officials.He says several engagements have taken place over the last number of months with more to come before the end of the calendar year.
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Source : Farmscape.ca