If there is one thing which agriculture relies on, at least in this country, it is trade.
In Canada we have far more production capacity than we do mouths to feed, and that means farmers must export most of what they produce in order to be viable.
There are, of course, niche exceptions, small acreage, or plot level production, of some crops, fruits and vegetables which are predominantly consumed domestically, but they are exceptions to the trade reliance rule.
So it is not a surprise that farmers were generally in favour when Canada originally signed onto the North American Trade Agreement.
While this country trades around the world, our key market across a broad range of products, agricultural ones included, has long been the United States. That is not surprising given their immediate proximity ensuring easy movement of goods, and its population.
So having unfettered access for the most part to the American market is generally seen as positive in terms of agriculture.
Of course international relations and trade relations in particular, are rarely straightforward and simple. That is why countries spend huge amounts of time and effort to hammer out trade deals which define a framework to allow for the flow of goods with less red tape than is possible without clearly defined rules. In a world where lawyers live to find contract loopholes to exploit in favour of one of the parties involved in the deal, solid trade agreements are a must at the international level.
Of course in a deal such as NAFTA no side is ever totally satisfied. Such a deal is created through negotiation, generally built through give and take. It is a process which results in something all signatories can in essence 鈥榣ive with鈥�, but certainly does not give any one side all it might have went into the negotiations wishing for.
When Donald Trump became president he was rather quick to reopen NAFTA clearly wanting a better deal, or at least his vision of a better deal, one which would favour the U.S. more than trade partners Canada and Mexico.
The new negotiation process, past the sixth round of sit down talks, doesn鈥檛 seem anywhere close to hammering out a new deal. There are those who fear the US will only sign if the deal favours them, it would be a disaster for Canada and Mexico to sign.
Yet if a deal is not done, the US could walk away from the deal, with the volatility of Trump in play that eventuality seems highly probable, and that would set trade back years.
In the balance is trade security, in particular agriculture trade, and that leaves a definite shadow looming on the horizon for producers.
Calvin Daniels is Editor with Yorkton This Week.
