The General Manger of Manitoba Pork is calling on Canada’s federal and provincial governments and agricultural organizations to work together to address issues related to market access and to connect with allies in the United States.
Manitoba Pork General Manager Cam Dahl observes, from threatened U.S. tariffs on Canadian agricultural products, to U.S. country of origin labelling and California’s Proposition 12 to tensions with China over electric vehicles, we’re seeing a growing wave of protectionism.
It’s not something that Manitoba can do by itself and it’s not something that the pork industry can do by itself. We’re seeing a lot more linkages to other policy areas. For example, defense spending has the potential to result in tariffs in agriculture and food and so we need all of agriculture across the country to come together and that’s a responsibility of provincial governments and the federal government and it’s also the responsibility of organizations like ours.
We need to be more active in reaching out to our counterparts in the U.S. The integrated North American market benefits farmers in both countries, it benefits consumers in both countries and we need to have those strong advocates in the U.S. as well and then we need to know how governments are going to respond in the event that tariffs are put in place so we can be prepared for that as well.
What I would ask producers is talk to your Member of Parliament and talk to your MLA and really stress the importance of developing a response plan now. We need to be prepared rather than just reactionary.
~ Cam Dahl, Manitoba Pork
Dahl says looking ahead the economics still look pretty good for the hog producers in Manitoba and for the pork industry but the big question mark is that uncertainty over markets.
