Agriculture ministers plan for trade turbulence
VANCOUVER — Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay emphasized the importance of the provinces working together Friday as an escalating trade war with the United States puts some farmers on edge.
The minister said his provincial and territorial counterparts discussed trade negotiations and the contingency plan during their conference that wrapped up Friday in Vancouver.
There’s already a safety net in place through the $3-billion Canadian Agricultural Partnership launched this year to help farmers manage risks and deal with problems, MacAulay said.
“We’re not going to speculate on what might develop or might not develop, but there’s a framework in place with the Canadian Agricultural Partnership now,” he said.
“There is a system in place to make sure if we hit any major problems that we’re able to deal with it. That’s why this meeting in the last couple of days is so important.”
MacAulay also announced a renewed $55-million AgriRisk Initiatives Program, which he said will help protect farmers against business risks they face.
B.C. Agriculture Minister Lana Popham said she was satisfied with the federal plan and that the provinces are united in the context of the trade war.
“We stand as one voice, as Canada, in a situation like this,” she said.
While U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has promised that President Donald Trump will restore farmer profitability in that country, he hasn’t specified how.
Some U.S. economists are skeptical that the administration can come up with the billions of dollars necessary to cover losses.
Perdue said last month he wasn’t pushing for Canada to do away with its supply-management system that controls price and supply of dairy, eggs and chicken, after Trump said he wanted the system dismantled and blasted Canada for charging a 270 per cent tariff on imported dairy products.
OTTAWA — Despite fresh rumblings of a bilateral deal between the United States and Mexico, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is convinced that a full North American Free Trade Agreement is best for all three countries.
Trudeau said Friday that NAFTA remains the preferred option for ensuring prosperity for workers across North America.
“That’s why we’re committed to renegotiating and improving and updating NAFTA,” Trudeau told reporters in Markham, Ont.
U.S. President Donald Trump and his agriculture secretary, Sonny Purdue, both said this week that a deal with Mexico could come first, before one with Canada is struck.
Ildefonso Guajardo, Mexico’s economy secretary, told a radio station this week that he will be in Washington next Thursday to resume NAFTA talks with U.S. officials.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, Finance Minister Bill Morneau and International Trade Minister Jim Carr will visit Mexico City on Wednesday to meet Mexican President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his team.
Some of Trump’s senior cabinet members have already paid a visit to Mexico’s new leader, which left the president upbeat about future trade prospects with that country.
“We have had very good sessions with Mexico and with the new president of Mexico, who won overwhelmingly,” Trump told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
“And we’re doing really well on our trade agreement. So we’ll see what happens. We may do it separately with Mexico, and we’ll negotiate with Canada at a later time.”
Purdue told the president this week that separate deals with the two countries might be better for American farmers.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper recently questioned Trudeau’s sincerity about renegotiating NAFTA.
In July 11 remarks to a Montreal meeting of the Australia-Canada Economic Leadership Forum, Harper said that fighting with Trump gives Trudeau’s Liberals a political win in Canada.
“This is great for them. And so right now that is the strategy they are on,” Harper said in a speech to the closed-door luncheon, a recording of which was obtained by CTV News.
Trudeau said he has consulted all recent prime ministers, including Harper, on NAFTA, but he refused to address Harper’s criticism, saying the deal is too important: “I won’t be playing politics with it.”