The General Manager of Manitoba Pork suggests by expanding the numbers of pigs finished and processed in Manitoba government and industry can help ease some of the trade uncertainty that exists between Canada and the United States.An article posted to Manitoba Pork's web site and circulated through Manitoba community newspapers looks at the response of Canadian governments and industry to global trade uncertainty in the face of trade disruptions with the United States and tariff disputes with China.
Cam Dahl, the General Manager of Manitoba Pork, suggests we need to ensure that we have a strategic plan going into the CUSMA review to ensure we are preserving that integrated North American market for pork.
Quote-Cam Dahl-Manitoba Pork:
If you look at what's happening in the relationship with Canada and the U.S. the word is uncertainty.We don't really know for sure what the trade environment is going to be a year or six months from now and that really is making some of those longer-term investment decisions more difficult.
The pork sector in Manitoba contributes 2.3 billion dollars a year to the provincial economy and contributes 22 thousand jobs and that's across rural communities; that's across urban centers like Brandon and Neepawa and Winnipeg.It is a central part of Manitoba's economy.In addition to that we still do have a 25 percent tariff on pork going in to China.
That's costing Canada about 100 million dollars a year and then there are other issues such as the non-tariff trade barriers that are keeping Canadian red meat out of Europe or things like Proposition 12 or country of origin labelling in the U.S.There are significant headwinds for an industry like the Manitoba pork sector that is dependant on exports.
Dahl suggests finishing more pigs and processing those pigs in Manitoba is one of the ways that we can diversify our markets and then we can look at increasing processing capacity in places like Neepawa, Brandon and Winkler.
Dahl's article can be accessed at manitobapork.com.
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