Beef is on display at a Walmart in Beijing on Sept. 23, 2019. (File photo: Reuters/Tingshu Wang)

China applies to join Trans-Pacific trade pact

Second-biggest economy seeks to add to economic clout

Reading Time: 2 minutes Updated, Sept. 17 — Beijing | Reuters — Japan said it would have to determine if China meets the “extremely high standards” of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) after the world’s second-biggest economy formally applied to join. Commerce Minister Wang Wentao submitted China’s application to join the free trade agreement in […] Read more

EU flags in front of the headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels. (Jorisvo/iStock/Getty Images)

EU parliament committee approves farm subsidy reforms

Reading Time: 2 minutes Brussels | Reuters — The European Parliament’s agriculture committee on Thursday approved a deal to overhaul the European Union’s huge farming subsidies, including new measures aimed at making agriculture greener. The committee approved three pieces of legislation, which from 2023 will govern spending from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) — a scheme that will […] Read more


File photo of apple picking in a Canadian orchard. (Martinedoucet/E+/Getty Images)

New B.C. youth work rules: Heavy lifting, ag chem handling out

New standards also lift province's 'general working age' to 16

Reading Time: 2 minutes “Light farm and yard work” are deemed appropriate for workers at ages 14 and 15 under new employment standards taking effect in British Columbia this fall. The province on Wednesday announced changes to its Employment Standards Act, which have been through the development and consultation stages since 2019, have now been finalized and will take […] Read more

Chrystia Freeland takes part in a news conference at the Canadian embassy in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 31, 2018. (Photo: Reuters/Chris Wattie)

Farm transfer tax treatment bill now law, feds say

Government to add amendments against tax loopholes

Reading Time: 3 minutes Despite a previous statement from her ministry, Canada’s finance minister says a bill standardizing the tax treatment of farm transfers is now officially on the books. However, while Bill C-208 is now in federal tax law, further amendments are en route to plug legal loopholes the bill may have opened. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on […] Read more


File photo of the produce section at a Canadian grocery store. (FatCamera/E+/Getty Images)

Industry-led code of conduct for food retailers on horizon

Fees create 'uncertainty' for producers, processors

Reading Time: 2 minutes A report from a federal-provincial working group says the retail sector has levied an increasing number of fees on suppliers, and is proposing the formation of a code of conduct as a potential solution. Canada’s agriculture ministers are now calling on industry to lead the process. They had formed the working group to study the […] Read more

Ralph Eichler, shown here at Ag Days in Brandon in 2019, is again Manitoba’s minister of agriculture. (Manitoba Co-operator photo by Allan Dawson)

Eichler back as Manitoba ag minister in shuffle

Pedersen not seeking re-election

Reading Time: 2 minutes Manitoba’s provincial agriculture files return to the desk of their former handler in a cabinet mini-shuffle Thursday. Premier Brian Pallister has named Ralph Eichler, MLA for the Interlake-area riding of Lakeside since 2003, as minister of agriculture and resource development, replacing Blaine Pedersen. Pedersen announced Thursday he will not seek re-election but will serve out […] Read more


U.S. President Joe Biden tours a manufacturing lab at McHenry County College during a visit to northwest Chicago suburb Crystal Lake on July 7, 2021. (Photo: Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein)

Biden seeks to lift limits on U.S. farmer dealings with tractor makers, packers

Executive order to address corporate 'abuses of power'

Reading Time: 3 minutes Washington | Reuters — U.S. President Joe Biden wants to give that country’s farmers more power in negotiating the sale of livestock to big processors and in deciding who repairs their tractors, the White House said on Tuesday. The executive order, expected within days, will also address such competitive issues as delayed airline baggage, cellphone […] Read more

Smoke rises from a wildfire over a hill at Kamloops, B.C. on July 1, 2021, in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. (Nicole Ritter via Reuters)

B.C. presses for ranchers to register before wildfires hit

Premises ID helps protect livestock in emergencies, province says

Reading Time: 2 minutes British Columbia’s provincial ag ministry hopes to shore up ranchers’ participation in the Premises Identification program against the risk of further wildfires this year. About two-thirds, or 5,200, of B.C.’s non-supply managed livestock producers, and all the supply-managed dairy cattle and poultry premises in the province, are registered in the program, the province said Wednesday. […] Read more


People under the ‘heat dome’ look for ways to cool off at Willows Beach at Victoria, B.C. on June 28, 2021. (Photo: Reuters/Chad Hipolito)

Prolonged heat wave breaks Canadian temperature records

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — An extreme heat wave affecting all four western provinces, the shores of the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories as well as Watson Lake, Yukon, is expected to persist for a week. The “heat dome,” a high-pressure system trapping warmer air, has affected British Columbia the most. The village of Lytton, about 160 […] Read more

EU flags in front of the headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels. (Jorisvo/iStock/Getty Images)

EU countries approve deal to overhaul farming subsidies

Subsidies to focus on sustainability, 'eco-schemes'

Reading Time: 2 minutes Brussels | Reuters — European Union countries on Monday gave the green light to reforms of the bloc’s huge farming subsidy program, after a three-year battle over rules to make it greener and support smaller farms. Negotiators representing the EU’s 27 countries and European Parliament struck the deal on Friday to reform the Common Agricultural […] Read more