The Chair of Manitoba Pork says factors that that lower the value of hogs in the United States harming U.S. pork producers are also hurt Canadian pork producers.
Representatives of Manitoba Pork traveled to Des Moines this week to participate in World Pork Expo and meet informally with American pork producers and U.S. political leaders.
High on the agenda were retaliatory tariffs imposed on U.S. pork by China and Mexico in response to U.S. tariffs on aluminum and steel.
George Matheson, the Chair of Manitoba Pork says a lot of the pork consumed in Canada originates in the U.S. and a lot of the weanlings produced in Manitoba are sold into the U.S. so the two sectors are highly integrated, producers in Canada and the U.S. deal with the same issues and both favor a free and open border so the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement is top of mind for both.
Producers on both sides of the border like free trade. We don’t like trade impediments so we’d like to see that stay as it is. We’re also concerned about swine health, hoping that we’re on top of diseases on both sides of the border and continuing to push biosecurity and fight against disease transfer and also social responsibility and public affair concerns are always something high on our agenda.
In Canada we’re very concerned about issues between U.S. and Mexican pork trade. Producers in Canada, because of our lack of packers, take the U.S. national price as their pork price so if the American producers are doing well, in response Canadian producers will be doing well so we don’t want to see anything jeopardize U.S. pork trade and put them into a price depression.
~ George Matheson, Manitoba Pork
Matheson would like to see U.S. pork moving freely to both Mexico and China.
