The General Manager of Manitoba Pork suggests Canada’s implementation of the Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership offers the market assurance necessary for the pork sector to justify long term investments.

Last week Bill C-79, legislation to implement the Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership received Royal Assent and the agreement will soon be formally ratified by the Government of Canada.

Andrew Dickson, the General Manager of Manitoba Pork, says the timely ratification of the agreement means our pork producers in Canada will benefit from immediate tariff reductions.

With the treaty now being ratified by Parliament, it means that industry now knows that this is a fixed deal. They can start making long term arrangements in terms of new investments in ramping up their production capacity for the future.

These markets are very important to us and they’ll be able to put product into the market place with no tariffs compared to some of the competitors that we have to deal with such as from Europe or Brazil or the United States.

With all of these things, the quicker we can get these trade agreements completed and ratified, it brings more certainty back into the market place, it brings more certainty back for business to make those critical investments that take a long time to pay back.

The more you can reduce uncertainty in the market place the better.

~ Andrew Dickson-Manitoba Pork

Dickson notes Manitoba’s pork producers will have the potential to expand their operations which will create more jobs both on farm and in the meat processing sector. He applauds the efforts of the members of the federal cabinet in bringing in modern trade agreements that will set us in good standing for the next 15 to 20 years.