President Donald Trump has recently said he will "tweak" the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but what this means for the agriculture industry isn't clear.
A new report from Ivey’s Lawrence National Centre for Policy and Management, We Make Things Together, discusses the trade interdependence between Ontario and the eight states making up the Great Lakes region (GLS8). Erin Cheney, research associate for Agri-Food@Ivey, spoke with Farms.com about the report.
“U.S. farmers make a profitable business of buying duty-free, high-health-status Canadian pigs for finishing and sale to U.S packers,” the report says. “In turn, many Canadian hog farmers [Manitoba and Ontario being the top producers] have received good, consistent value shipping live hogs to the U.S.”
Cheney says everyone in the industry has to be prepared for the worst but hope for the best.
"We have a phenomenal agricultural industry with new growth every year," she says. "While we do have a lot of ‘eggs in the U.S. basket,’ we have [strength in] other trade partners."
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