Reading Time: 13 minutes It had been another frigid day in Manitoba, snow swirling as farmers and ranchers gathered at a downtown hotel, but once inside it didn’t take long for the temperature to rise. They’d gathered for Keystone Agricultural Producers annual general meeting, where one issue outpaced the rest — carbon pricing. It was standing room only, with […] Read more
The carbon tax
Farmers see themselves as the good guys in the carbon debate, with good reason. Is agriculture going to pay anyway?
Trump wins support for possible WTO action on Canada dairy
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters – Australia and New Zealand dairy industry leaders say they would support moves by the United States to draw the World Trade Organization into a trade dispute with Canada, after President Donald Trump said existing rules were unfair. On a visit to the U.S. cheese-making state of Wisconsin on April 18, Trump said he […] Read more
Trumping it out
Will a protectionist administration in the White House force our ag equipment industry to move south?
Reading Time: 6 minutes It was a stunning move. Ford’s CEO and president Mark Fields appeared on CNN in January to announce that his company was scrubbing its long-planned construction of a US$1.6 billion assembly plant in Mexico. Instead, Ford will invest U.S.$700 million in a Michigan facility and boost its workforce in that state by 700. It looked […] Read more
Canada to Mexico on NAFTA: You might be on your own
Reading Time: 2 minutes Calgary | Reuters — Canada will focus on preserving its U.S. trade ties during talks to renegotiate NAFTA and may not be able to help Mexico avoid being targeted by the Trump administration, Canadian government sources say. “We love our Mexican friends. But our national interests come first and the friendship comes second,” a source […] Read more
As Trump meets biotech CEOs, farm advisers fret over empty USDA spot
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has left the agriculture secretary as the last department head to be named to his cabinet, while a meeting with the chief executives of two agribusiness giants gave a hint at a roster of farm issues the incoming president will face. Trump met on Wednesday with the […] Read more
Protectionism game comes with raised economic stakes: Frum
Reading Time: 3 minutes As U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration day approaches, the business world is pondering how the new administration might affect the world economy. Trump’s pride in his unpredictability is troubling, given he’s the president-elect, said David Frum, political commentator, former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, and a senior editor for Washington-based magazine The Atlantic. However, […] Read more
Trudeau to shuffle Dion out of foreign affairs
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters –– Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will shuffle his cabinet this week and is set to move Foreign Minister Stephane Dion, who ran into political trouble last year, a person with knowledge of the matter said on Monday. “Dion is out,” said the person, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of […] Read more
Ignoring Trump, UN talks seek to turn climate pledges into action
Reading Time: 2 minutes Morocco/Reuters – Almost 200 nations began work on Monday to turn promises for fighting climate change into action at a UN conference that played down threats to a 2015 global agreement if Republican Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidency. At the start of two-week talks in Morocco, many delegates wore badges with a smiling picture […] Read more
Clinton campaign studying alternative to U.S. ethanol mandate
Reading Time: 3 minutes Washington/San Francisco | Reuters — Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign has solicited advice from California regulators on how to revamp a federal regulation requiring biofuels such as corn-based ethanol be blended into the nation’s gasoline supply, according to campaign and state officials. The move is the clearest sign yet that, if elected, Clinton […] Read more
U.S., European trade negotiators battle political headwinds
Reading Time: 3 minutes New York | Reuters — Facing deeply entrenched differences and political headwinds, the top negotiators trying to reach a sweeping U.S.-European free trade deal avoided agriculture, public procurement and other thorny issues in talks this week. Instead, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Daniel Mullaney and European Commission lead negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercera said on Friday they […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
