A member of the Board of Directors of Manitoba Pork says pork producers in Manitoba and in Minnesota remain optimistic that a agreement will be reached that preserve the benefits that have resulted from the North American Free Trade Agreement.
A delegation representing Manitoba Pork is in Minneapolis this week taking part in the 2018 Minnesota Pork Congress and meeting with fellow producers, pork sector leaders and elected officials to talk about issues of common interest and answer questions about Manitoba’s pork sector.
Lyle Peters. a Randolph, Manitoba area pork producers and a member of Manitoba Pork’s Board of Directors, notes, when it comes to trade, there is a lot of common ground among producers from the two regions.
We had a round table meeting with the two heads of the Minnesota Pork Board as well as some other producers. Their pork board is similar to our pork board and we talked about the upcoming NAFTA negotiations and how important that is both to Manitoba and also to Minnesota that the NAFTA negotiations move forward.
The Minnesota Pork Board is very much on side with our opinion. They have been lobbying their congress people and senators and governors that they need NAFTA to continue, either to be improved or to remain status quo.
The Trump Administration has threatened to kill the NAFTA negotiations and that would be bad for both our side and theirs and they understand that and so they have been lobbying to make sure those negotiations move forward.
The Minnesota pork producers are fairly confident that the NAFTA negotiations will move forward on their side and we at Manitoba Pork believe that the NAFTA negotiations will move forward on our side too. So there’s quite a lot of optimism that something will get settled.
~ Lyle Peters, Manitoba Pork
Peters says it’s important for Manitoba producers to be there and meet with local producers who are buying weanlings or market hogs that are coming in from Manitoba, to talk with the leaders of the Minnesota pork board and also to create new relationships.
