Farmscape for August 16, 2018

The President of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan says, amid uncertainty on the international trade front, an as quick as possible ratification of the Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership is critical for Canadian agriculture.
Uncertainty over the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement, escalating trade tensions among the United States and its trading partners, most notably China, and tensions between Canada and Saudi Arabia have created a highly volatile international climate for trade.
Todd Lewis, the President of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, says, in an industry like agriculture its a big concern when some of our markets are threatened making deals like the CPTPP that much more important.

Clip-Todd Lewis-Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan:
The first six countries that ratify it will be ahead of the rest of them so it's certainly important that the federal government are able to ratify it quickly when the Parliament sits down again in the fall so it's going to be important that it is passed and ratified.
Certainly for our hog industry and livestock industry it's a great opportunity for them to expand their markets into an area of the world.
The southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim countries all are great markets for our Canadian beef and pork so I think there should be real opportunities there for our producers to get into those markets and be first in.
Typically when Canadian product gets into a market it's accepted very well because of the quality of it so we're looking forward to that.
Also for our grain and oilseed producers, countries like Japan are major users of our canola oil and there's lots of opportunity there with the large population in these countries that are looking for what Canada produces so hopefully we can get into those markets and be successful.

Lewis says we can't rely specifically on one market so we look forward to getting into those emerging markets that have the buying power to use our good Canadian products.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork