A Partner with Polar Pork suggests despite the lack of progress in discussions aimed at extending the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement, pork producers in all three countries remain hopeful common sense will prevail and the free movement of agricultural products will continue. With the first mandatory review of the Canada-United States-Mexico agreement officially underway, the U.S. President has indicated the United States will not renew the agreement in its current form.
Florian Possberg, a Partner with Polar Pork, says over the past year there were times when it looked like there were some serious negotiations then it kind of seesawed and we have now reached the point where any of the three countries can give six months notice to exit the agreement.
Quote-Florian Possberg-Polar Pork:
If an agreement was based on good business principles, no doubt there would be an agreement signed for pork and many other agricultural commodities.The uncertainty comes when President Trump has made some rather bold statements that disturbed the industry.Prime Minister Carney has said he's not going to sign a deal unless it's a good deal.
Does that mean it's based on aluminum and lumber and car parts and agriculture is left hanging? The fact that we don't have something definitive just creates doubt and uncertainty is not good for our business.Prime Minister Carney stated the other day that, when negotiating with President Trump, you might think there's a whole bunch of problems and then all of a sudden, a deal is struck and everybody goes home happy.
That's kind of an optimistic view.A pessimistic view would be that things really turn sour and we get notice and then six months, we start having tariffs put on us.So, it's pretty hard to tell how things will turn out at the end but we really hope that it will come down to common sense in the end.
Possberg says Canadian pork producers will continue the dialogue with their American and Mexican counterparts and lobby Canada's trade negotiators, we know the Americans will do the same and Mexico is in tune with the need for trade agreements as well.Assuming that good business principles apply, he's optimistic that we can have a good outcome.
Source : Farmscape.ca