The Chair of Manitoba Pork says the free flow of pork across the Canada U.S. border has helped foster strong relations between the pork sectors in the two nations.
The renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and efforts to address swine disease concerns were among the top of mind discussions over the past two weeks as delegations representing Manitoba Pork travelled first to Minneapolis for the 2018 Minnesota Pork Congress and then to Des Moines for the 2018 Iowa Pork Congress.
George Matheson, the Chair of Manitoba Pork, says the overall goal, as much as anything, would be to put a face to the industry.
We do ship a significant numbers of pigs south and a fair bit of pork comes into Canada from U.S. sources. From Manitoba we export a significant number of weanlings, probably in the range of three and a half million per year. Live pigs from the U.S. do not enter Canada. They have their own markets in their own country. They do export, 20 percent of the pork consumed by Canadians comes from U.S. origin.
The fact that we have free trade encourages strong relations. They like our pigs, we have no problem with receiving U.S. pork products. The pork price received by Canadian pork producers is a derivative of the U.S. national price so if they’re doing well, we’re doing well.
I’ve always been pleased to say, and it’s been 12 years that we’ve been coming down here, that there’s never been competitiveness between the two countries. It’s always been an attitude of, what are the issues, how can we work together to make things workable.
~ George Matheson-Manitoba Pork
Matheson says participants in meetings in Minneapolis and Des Moines were all on the page when it comes to NAFTA. He says he didn’t find one person involved in the pork sector who wanted to see NAFTA changed which is good news for Canadians producers because we very much like the way that NAFTA has operated and recognize it’s best for both countries to have no encumbrances.
