The Research Lead with Agri-Food Economic Systems suggests, by shifting away from agricultural trade with its traditional allies including Canada, the U.S. is jeopardising global competitiveness.An Independent Agri-Food Policy Note released by Agri-Food Economic Systems looks at the effect of a U.S. withdrawal from its traditional alignment with the west on agricultural trade.Research Lead Dr. Al Mussell observes, over the last number of years, the U.S. has become much more protectionist, a departure from rule-based free trade.
Quote-Dr. Al Mussell-Agri-Food Economic Systems:
We've got a volatile situation in in global agriculture.We've got a very serious drought in Western Europe which is going to impair their yields significantly, also impairing their logistics on rivers and stuff because of low river levels.The Black Sea has become perilous to navigate from the standpoint of outward movement of wheat and feed grains, the barley and corn.
So, we've got this very volatile marketplace and that's before you even get into the energy complex.But you need your international trade and pricing mechanism to work exceptionally well to try and even out and account for those disruptions.At the same time, we've got the United States going in a different direction, not being a defender of the rules-based trade environment, to some degree prepared to throw their traditional trading partners and allies under the bus here a little bit.
And then, of course, we're learning every day more and more about the crisis that is probably going to hit Europe first having to do with diesel fuel where they could just run out of diesel fuel.Then it's not just farm equipment.It's anything that moves on a truck, train or boat, which, of course, is everything is affected by that.
Dr. Mussell suggests we need to communicate with our American colleagues and help them understand that throwing your traditional allies under the bus to achieve a quick gain strengthens the position of your competitors, notably China and Russia.He says Canada and the United States can have their disagreements, and we most certainly do, but on this big stuff we need to get on the same page.The Independent Agri-Food Policy note can be accessed at agrifoodecon.ca.
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Source : Farmscape.ca