Source: Canadian Cattlemen’s Association
| Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) President David Haywood-Farmer led the Canadian delegation at the trilateral leaders’ meeting during the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Convention in New Orleans, LA, last week.
Haywood-Farmer expressed CCA’s pleasure that the NAFTA/U.S. Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) negotiations had concluded and that Canada had implemented the new Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Canada-EU Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement (CETA). He also stated CCA’s desire that the three countries will move quickly to implement the new USMCA without disruption and that we should focus work on addressing regulatory matters. NCBA reported that it will be difficult for the new Democratic controlled House of Representatives under Speaker Nancy Pelosi to cooperate with the Trump Administration and therefore swift passage of legislation to implement USMCA will be a challenge. NCBA will work to keep the existing NAFTA in place until conditions are right to implement the new agreement. All agreed that U.S. withdrawal from the existing NAFTA without implementation of USMCA would be a disaster for the beef sector and should not be a strategy that the Administration pursues. That said, President Trump’s threat to withdraw the U.S. as a tactic to pressure the Congress should be taken seriously. In the meantime, all three cattle producer associations should continue to express the value of the USMCA to our respective governments. |
