Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters –– Global beef buyers will likely need to cobble together supplies from several nations if a scandal persists in Brazil’s meat sector because supply constraints and politics are already limiting trade flows, market analysts said Monday. China suspended imports of all meat products from Brazil, the world’s top beef exporter, as a […] Read more
Brazil beef scandal leaves fewer options for global buyers
Key European body backs EU-Canada trade deal
Reading Time: 2 minutes Brussels | Reuters — A planned EU-Canada free-trade deal moved closer to reality on Tuesday after a key committee advised the European Parliament to give its backing after months of protests and heated debate. The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is seen as a test of Europe’s ability to forge future trade accords […] Read more
Canada says TPP trade deal dead without U.S.
Reading Time: 2 minutes Calgary | Reuters — The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal cannot proceed without the United States, Canada said on Tuesday, even as Australia and New Zealand pledged to salvage it. U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the 12-nation TPP on Monday, following through on an election promise days after his inauguration. “This agreement was so […] Read more
EU-Canada trade deal clears further hurdles in Europe
Reading Time: 2 minutes Brussels | Reuters — A planned EU-Canada free trade deal received backing from a committee of the European Parliament and Germany’s top court on Thursday, increasing its chances of entering force later this year. The European Union and Canada signed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) in October, but only after opposition from a […] Read more
Canada keen to boost ties, seal trade pact with India
Reading Time: 2 minutes Gandhinagar, India | Reuters –– Canada is keen to boost its business ties with India and is moving forward with attempts to seal a trade pact, Canada’s minister of infrastructure and communities told Reuters. “There is an emphasis on signing a trade agreement with India,” Amarjeet Sohi said in an interview Tuesday. “The process was […] Read more
Marijuana firms look to get creative with brand building
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — Canadian marijuana companies, facing potential limits on advertising for recreational pot, are selling health food products and cultivating a lifestyle image to win customers in an anticipated multibillion dollar market. Canada is set to become the first G7 country to legalize recreational marijuana nationally when it introduces legislation next spring. Medical […] Read more
Brexit – good or bad for us?
While the ag sector looks for stability in currency markets, short-term price spikes and long-term trade agreements may get overlooked
Reading Time: 3 minutes Financial markets began to stabilize within days of the U.K.’s surprise Brexit vote this past June, but that doesn’t mean the vote has been shrugged off either by the big exchanges or by the markets that set the prices for farm commodities. It does mean, however, that the world is coming to terms with the […] Read more
German activists take EU-Canada trade deal to Constitutional Court
Reading Time: 2 minutes Berlin | Reuters — Activists delivered what they said was Germany’s biggest-ever public complaint to the Constitutional Court on Wednesday, hoping it will scupper a trade agreement between the European Union and Canada. The deal, which some see as a template for an EU-U.S. agreement still being negotiated, is the EU’s most ambitious trade pact […] Read more
U.S. grains: Soybeans weighed down by big harvest prospects
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — U.S. soybeans and grains dipped on Wednesday, weighed down by abundant harvest prospects in key countries. Soybeans led the way lower, as the closely watched four-day Pro Farmer U.S. Midwest Crop Tour scouted impressive crops in central Illinois, following its observation a day earlier of above-average soybean pod counts in Nebraska and Indiana. […] Read more
Canada presses China on science in canola trade spat
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ottawa | Reuters — Canada is urging the Chinese government to stick to scientific facts in decisions on trade as Beijing plans to toughen its standard on Canadian canola shipments, federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay said Thursday. China’s quarantine authority, AQSIQ, notified the Canadian Food Inspection Agency last month that it would allow no more […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
