Farmscape for April 3, 2017

The Pioneer Chair in Agribusiness with Iowa State University says loose talk in the U.S. of trade wars has given open license to protectionists world wide to call for measures to protect their farmers.
"Pork Trade in the World of Trump" will be among the topics discussed Wednesday as part of Manitoba Pork's Annual General Meeting in Winnipeg.
Dr. Dermot Hayes, a Professor and Pioneer Chair in Agribusiness with Iowa State University, observes, while the U.S. pulled out of the TPP, that doesn't stop other countries from introducing bilateral trade and so it looks like, if the U.S. doesn't get back into that free market game, it will fall behind and countries such Canada, the EU and Chile have preferential access and the U.S. will face higher duties.

Clip-Dr. Dermot Hayes-Iowa State University:
I think a lot of countries are much more cautious about open markets.
Loose talk of trade wars has given everybody a fright and countries that import food are very concerned about the stability and security of the food supply.
It hasn't done us any good to be threatening trade wars with countries such as China and Mexico.
These are place we rely on to absorb a lot of our surplus food and those countries have been given every incentive to introduce protectionist measures or look to other markets.
People who import their food are so concerned about the security that we've given open license to protectionists all over the world who now say we told you so.
The U.S. is not a reliable supplier.
They threatened us with cutting off our food supplies and therefore we have to protect our farmers.

Dr. Hayes says the key right now to everything is what's going on in China.
He notes they're importing about a quarter million pounds of pork per month, which is huge, and they're imposing strict environmental standards on their producers and that's preventing an expansion in their industry so for the next year to year and a half we're going to see enormous export opportunities there.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork