The General manager of Manitoba Pork is calling on Canada’s elected official to set aside the rhetoric and focus on preserving the benefits of the Canada U.S. Mexico Agreement.
On Saturday U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 10 percent increase in tariffs on goods imported from Canada, after breaking off trade negotiations earlier in the week in response to ads produced by the Ontario government that used negative comments by Ronald Reagan on tariffs.
Cam Dahl, the General Manager of Manitoba Pork, calls on Canada’s elected officials to prioritize the renegotiation and to tone down the rhetoric while working with our allies in the U.S. to maintain trade.
Bluster and rhetoric coming from north of the border, to be really quite blunt, isn’t always helpful. It makes things more difficult for our allies in the United States and we have those.
I think the focus really does need to be the preservation of that integrated North American market which really benefits consumers and it benefits producers on both sides of the border so that needs to be the focus. I think, to steal a line from medicine, it’s do no harm and that’s the primary objective of going into the CUSMA review and potential renegotiations.
I think some of the public commentary is not all that positive all the time but, when you sit down across the table from farm leaders in the U.S., from state politicians for example, elected officials, that there’s a good understanding of the value of this partnership. That one-on-one outreach gives me reason to be optimistic.
~ Cam Dahl, Manitoba Pork
Dahl says there is an understanding among elected state officials and agricultural leaders in the U.S. that trade with Canada is important and we need to working with those like-minded partners and helping them influence the Trump administration.
