Reading Time: 3 minutes Alberta’s new premier has tapped a not-quite-rookie MLA with experience in farming, farm policy and U.S. politics as his new minister of agriculture and forestry. Jason Kenney, sworn in Tuesday as premier, named Devin Dreeshen, the MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake since last July, to handle the ag and forestry file. Dreeshen came to the UCP’s […] Read more
Alberta UCP’s trade critic named ag minister
Stalled farm bill could move fast after Democrat House win
Reading Time: 2 minutes Washington | Reuters – Congress may swiftly resolve a drawn-out impasse on the U.S. Farm Bill now that Democrats are poised to retake control of the legislative body, the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee said on Wednesday. Collin Peterson, ranking member and presumptive new chair of committee, said passing the crucial agricultural legislation was going […] Read more
Trump’s trade war looms over divided U.S. farm belt ahead of vote
Reading Time: 4 minutes Reuters – Chuck Wirtz voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election, inspired by the then-political outsider, but the veteran Iowa hog farmer now has buyer’s remorse as the U.S. Republican president’s trade policy exacts a heavy toll on his business. Wirtz, 56, estimates the tariffs resulting from the U.S. trade war with China and […] Read more
Hog industry worldwide getting slaughtered in trade war
Reading Time: 5 minutes Beijing/Chicago/Carambei | Reuters – Ken Maschhoff, chairman of the largest U.S. family-owned pork producer, has watched profits fall as trade tensions rise between the United States and China. His company, The Machhoffs, has halted U.S. projects worth up to $30 million and may move some operations overseas. Investing in domestic operations now would be “ludicrous” […] Read more
Tariff relief for Canada’s farmers at issue in Quebec election
Reading Time: 2 minutes Montreal |Reuters – Quebec farmers want further relief from a global tariff dispute ahead of Oct. 1 elections in the mostly French-speaking Canadian province, which has seen a recent rise in nationalist sentiment. Quebec’s ruling Liberals, centrists but separate from the federal Liberal party, launched their campaign on Thursday. They trail in polls behind the center-right Coalition Avenir Quebec […] Read more
China plans tariffs on $60 bln of U.S. goods in latest trade salvo
Reading Time: 4 minutes Beijing | Singapore | Reuters – China proposed retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods ranging from liquefied natural gas (LNG) to some aircraft on Friday, as a senior Chinese diplomat cast doubt on prospects of talks with Washington to solve their bitter trade conflict. The Trump administration tightened pressure for trade concessions from […] Read more
U.S. says farmers could get cash aid by Oct. but will not be made whole
Reading Time: 2 minutes Buenos Aires | Reuters – U.S. farmers could receive cash payments from a planned $12 billion aid package as soon as late September, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told Reuters on July 28, warning that the program will not make tariff-hit farmers whole. Perdue said in an interview on the sidelines of the G20 meeting […] Read more
TPP countries agree to keep trade deal alive, much work remains
Reading Time: 2 minutes Vietnam | Reuters – Members of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreed to continue working on the proposed trade deal despite early Canadian resistance in talks that had raised new doubts about its survival, officials said. According to a draft of the final statement seen by Reuters and due to be released on Saturday in […] Read more
Short-liners get aggressive
We sit down with Leah Olson, president of Agricultural Manufacturers of Canada, to take the pulse of today’s Canadian short-line equipment manufacturers
Reading Time: 5 minutes In past years, as the calendar began leading up to summer, my email inbox would fill with press releases from short-line ag equipment manufacturers hungry to show off their their new models and boost sales. This year, however, was quiet. There just weren’t as many announcements as I’d come to expect. Yes, there have been […] Read more
Turning friends into targets
Be glad you aren’t the CEO of a major machinery manufacturer in the new era of Donald Trump
Reading Time: 5 minutes Ever since Donald Trump sold 62 million American voters on the idea that, by applying border taxes, he could recreate a manufacturing landscape last seen in the 1950s, there have been sweat stains on the collars of manufacturing executives everywhere. Now, more of those executives within the U.S. are speaking out about what they think […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
