Reading Time: < 1 minute Santiago | Reuters — The Chilean government is expecting to send the Pacific trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to its Congress for approval by the end of 2016, President Michelle Bachelet said Thursday. The 12-nation TPP aims to liberalize commerce in 40 per cent of the world’s economy, but its future is […] Read more
Chile plans to send TPP deal to Congress this year
China raps Ottawa as dispute over canola exports deepens
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — A dispute over $2 billion worth of Canadian canola exports to China intensified on Thursday when Beijing criticized Ottawa’s insistence that bilateral relations could not improve until the matter is settled. The situation threatens to mar Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit to China next week. “We oppose linking a concrete […] Read more
Viterra books lower first-half revenues for Glencore
Reading Time: 2 minutes “Average” crops and lower prices on the Prairies in the first half of 2016 led to results “substantially below” those in the year-earlier period for Viterra’s Canadian operations. Viterra’s owner, Swiss commodity mining/marketing firm Glencore, on Wednesday reported a nine per cent drop in revenues across its global agricultural products business, from $10.74 billion in […] Read more
Pettigrew tapped to help push through EU trade deal
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ottawa | Reuters — Canada has named a former politician with experience in trade and foreign affairs as the government’s new envoy to help complete its long-negotiated free trade agreement with the European Union, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. Pierre Pettigrew, who served as both minister of foreign affairs and minister for international trade under previous […] Read more
ICE weekly outlook: Canola watching China before harvest
Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — The canola market continues to watch and wait for the Chinese and Canadian governments to resolve a dispute over the amount of dockage allowed in imports of Canadian canola. Until that happens, canola may face growing pressure between now and next week. On Sept. 1, China is scheduled to lower the amount […] Read more
Saskatchewan adds new secretary for farm irrigation
Reading Time: < 1 minute A rookie MLA in the Saskatchewan Party caucus has been promoted to a legislative secretary post with responsibility for expansion of the province’s farm irrigation systems. Premier Brad Wall on Tuesday named Warren Kaeding, the MLA for Melville-Saltcoats since April, as legislative secretary to the minister of agriculture, for irrigation expansion. Kaeding was previously a […] Read more
U.S. Senate judiciary committee to hold hearing on ag chem deals
Reading Time: < 1 minute Washington | Reuters — The U.S. Senate judiciary committee will hold a hearing in late September to discuss the mergers of Dow Chemical and Dupont as well as ChemChina’s purchase of Syngenta, committee chair Charles Grassley said in a statement Tuesday. Grassley, a Republican from the farm state of Iowa, has already expressed concern that […] Read more
StatsCan’s canola estimates taken with grain of salt
Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — Statistics Canada’s latest crop production estimates are in and while they may raise a few eyebrows, the numbers aren’t likely to cause havoc in the markets, according to most trade analysts. StatsCan on Tuesday pegged canola production in 2016-17 at 17 million tonnes. That compares to pre-report ideas of 15.9 to 20 […] Read more
U.S. watchdog clears ChemChina’s takeover of Syngenta
Reading Time: 2 minutes Zurich | Reuters — A U.S. regulator has cleared ChemChina’s US$43 billion takeover of Swiss pesticides and seeds group Syngenta, the companies said Monday, boosting chances that the largest foreign acquisition ever by a Chinese company will go through. The decision should remove significant uncertainty over whether the acquisition of the world’s largest pesticides maker […] Read more
Tisdale drops ‘Land of Rape and Honey’ slogan
Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — The Saskatchewan town of Tisdale is no longer the “Land of Rape and Honey,” it said on Monday, as it dropped a slogan that had been a constant source of complaints. The slogan referred to rapeseed, also known as canola, a major product of Tisdale and the surrounding region along with honey. But […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
