The General Manager of Manitoba Pork says a 25 percent across the board U.S. tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico will jeopardize jobs and hurt American farmers, processors and consumers as well as Canadian and Mexican farmers, processors and consumers.
The Donald Trump administration moved forward with a 25 percent across the board tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico.
A 25 percent tariff from our largest trading partner is going to impact those jobs. It’s also going to impact the contribution that we make to Manitoba’s economy. That’s 2.3 billion dollars a year. Again, a 25 percent tariff from our largest trading partner is going to have an impact on that.
What we saw is going to impact everybody in Manitoba, whether they work in the pork sector or not. One of the reasons why this is so perplexing is the negative impacts aren’t just going to be confined to Canada. U.S. producers that have been relying on Canadian pigs, they’ll be more expensive. They’ll still have access but it will cost them 25 percent more to buy Canadian pigs. That is going to have an impact on the supply of pork going into U.S. processors and it’s going to have an impact on the price of products on the grocery shelves for U.S. consumers.
Let’s take for example an isowean that goes down to Iowa to be finished and processed. The processor then ships the hams into Mexico for deboning and processing and then the packages come back into Canada the U.S. for retail. By the time that gets to the retail store, that package will have faced three sets of tariffs and I don’t understand how anyone can think that will be good for consumers.
~ Cam Dahl, Manitoba Pork
Dahl encourages expanded pork market diversification, including reduced restrictions on interprovincial trade, and a stepped-up focus on buying Canadian, including reciprocal tariffs.
