USMCA - The New NAFTA & its Impact

North American Ag Roundtable 2020

We increasingly find ourselves in a rapidly evolving world facing its agri-food segments. Internationally, the multilateral rules-based trade system that protects small countries like Canada from the leverage of big powers has weakened. This impacts Canada’s access to export markets, the ability to sort out trade disputes, and increasingly to the exposure to agricultural support levels employed by other countries. This is occurring despite the recent appearance of a range of new trade agreements- USMCA/CUSMA, CPTPP, US-Japan, and US-China. It also impacts integrated international agri-food supply chains- especially among the US, Canada, and Mexico and especially in horticulture, red meats, and grains and oilseeds - that have developed among the three countries over the last 25-30 years.

In a short period of time, the realities of international and trade relations have changed, its domestic agri-food policy context has changed, and its situation in terms of pricing and returns volatility in agri-food has changed.

Moderator: Al Mussell, Research Lead at Agri-Food Economic Systems

Panelists:

J.P. Gervais, Vice President and Chief Agricultural Economist at Farm Credit Canada (FCC)

Daren Bakst, Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation

Joseph Glauber, Senior Research Fellow at International Food Policy Research Institute

Hosted by The Uncommon Ground Inc. & the North American Ag Roundtable.