The Executive Director of the Canadian Pork Council says support among state agriculture and rural leaders for maintaining the North American Free Trade Agreement remains strong.
This past week State Agriculture and Rural Leaders hosted the 2018 Legislative Agriculture Chairs Summit in Kansas City, Missouri.
John Ross, the Executive Director of the Canadian Pork Council, who was on hand for the summit, says the event provides a tremendous opportunity to visit with elected state officials as well the provincial leaders who attend to discuss issues, primarily trade.
Interestingly I thought with the discussion under way about NAFTA that it would be a centre piece in the meetings and, while there was a lot of discussion about NAFTA and its importance, it certainly wasn’t the major theme of discussion. There’s really good agreement across the agriculture industry on the importance of trade between Canada and the United States, it wasn’t a big issue. Without question, they’re all supportive trade, they saw the value of trade, they look forward to trading with Canada and Mexico in the NAFTA context, strong strong supporters.
I think for a sentiment, it was one of hope, that a deal would get done, and a deal that would benefit all three countries and we could continue to build on the success that we’ve had to date. I think for all of us, specifically using the hog industry as an example, trade is fundamental. We have to move product into markets around the world in order to maximize the value of the animals that we produce and that maximized value comes back to producers. It’s the same story in Canada, it’s the same story in the United States and in many cases it’s the same story in Mexico as an example of the importance of trade to that market.
We’re all in the same boat. Trade matters a great deal to us.
~ John Ross, Canadian Pork Council
Ross says one of the groups the current administration really pays attention to is the state governors and they can move the message of the importance of NAFTA into the White House.
