NAFTA Conversations Continue

Hearings continue in Ottawa this month as the Federal Government looks to ratify the new NAFTA.

 

The US and Mexico have already given the green light to the deal. Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland spoke about some of the difficulties Canadian negotiators faced right off the bat, from the US camp, especially on the issue of supply management.

 

In the end, Canada stood firm on the issue, however, the government did agree to forfeit roughly 3 per cent market access to US milk products, promising to compensate Canadian dairy producers for the damage caused from that lost market share. But there's an additional clause in the new deal the dairy industry is bringing to light at the hearings in Ottawa, one that Mike Barrett of the Dairy Processors of Canada calls a dangerous precedent.

 

The new NAFTA puts a cap on the number of milk proteins the Canadian dairy industry can sell to not just the US and Mexico but globally. Foothills MP John Barlow who sits on the Commons Ag committee, asked the industry presenters, like Mike Barrett, if they knew this was coming.

 

"There was good communication of the process of the negotiation of the agreement itself. There was a good deal of dialogue, but we were surprised by the reiteration of the agreement that included the export caps that have been outlined."

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.