Years of work poured into building an integrated US-Canada pork market may come falling down as the Canadian government seeks to enact retaliatory tariffs on US products after the Trump administration imposed 25% tariffs on imports from Canada. In hopes of retaining the countries’ strong trade relationship, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) wrote to the Canadian government asking that pork products be exempt from any retaliatory tariffs levied on US products.
“The tit-for-tat tariff exchanges will disrupt supply chains that have been built up over decades,” the group wrote to Canada’s International Trade Policy Division on March 21. “We request that Canada seeks to preserve the benefits of the integrated North American market to the maximum extent practicable, including by excluding US pork imports from retaliation.”
In 2024, the United States exported more than $850 million worth of pork to Canada, while Canada shipped $1.7 billion lbs of pork to the United States. Canada also exported over $560 million worth of live swine to the United States. NPPC pointed out that the majority of the imported live swine was brought to US finishing and slaughter facilities, where much of the Canadian-sourced pork was later sent back across the border.
“The deep integration in the US-Canada pork market is a North American success story,” NPPC said in its letter. “NPPC has fought hard to support both the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and USMCA/CUSMA in expanding and preserving free trade between our countries. We will continue our robust support for an open North American market for our industry.”
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