A former Manitoba Liberal Leader is hopeful a trade agreement reached between the United States and the United Kingdom will serve as a model during the upcoming renegotiation of the Canada U.S. Mexico agreement. On February 1st the Trump Administration authorised the imposition of across-the-board 25 percent tariffs on products imported from Canada and Mexico before agreeing to a 30-day delay just one day before those duties were due to take effect February 4th and then April 1st triggered additional trade discussions by announcing tariffs on 75 of the United States other trading partners.
Dr. Jon Gerrard, a former MLA, Manitoba Liberal leader and federal Minister for Science, Research and Development and Western Economic Diversification, says there has since been a better recognition of the Canada U.S. Mexico agreement and we have seen a trade agreement established between the United States and the United Kingdom.
Quote-Dr. Jon Gerrard-Former Manitoba Liberal Leader:
I think it's been helpful that we have Mark Carney as the Prime Minister now.He seems to be starting to build a bit of a relationship with Donald Trump in a sense that he's commanding some respect and getting into some significant discussions.I think what's important is that Donald Trump has cut back on some the worst of the rhetoric toward Canada and, although it's still not very comfortable when you've got your powerful next-door neighbour saying that they want to take over your country, but I think the risks of 25 percent tariffs are not as high as they were and that's good, certainly for agricultural products.
I think that there's probably going to be quite a bit of back and forth over the next few months and we'll see where we end up.
Dr. Gerrard remains hopeful Canada will still able to market products into the United States but we do need to be looking at global markets to give us a little bit more security and certainty.
Source : Farmscape.ca