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Agriculture leaders urge Canada, U.S. to resume USMCA trade talks
U.S. agriculture leaders are encouraging trade negotiators to keep talking following the breakdown in discussions with Canada over the weekend.
Bryan Goodman with Agricultural Coalition for USMCA tells Brownfield, “When you get that renewed and get everything worked out in that agreement, you don’t have to have these internecine type disagreements with one-off countries.”
“We need a good trilateral agreement with Mexico, Canada, and the United States,” he says.
On Monday, the U.S. placed 50 percent tariffs on some Canadian imports including dairy, lumber, and honey products, and President Trump is threatening additional tariffs on cars, trucks, auto parts, and steel beginning January 1st.
Goodman says all products covered under USMCA should be exempted from the latest duties.
“We have faith in President Trump,” he says. “He is a big advocate for the agricultural community. He’s a great negotiator, one of the products of that is USMCA, and we hope that he will renew his signature achievement.”
Gregg Doud with the National Milk Producers Federation says Canada needs to return to the negotiating table to resolve outstanding USMCA dairy implementation issues and prevent further escalation.
Canada’s Prime Minister says while the country was prepared to take administrative measures on the dairy supply concerns, demands late in negotiations caused progress to collapse, and he plans to start dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs in September.
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