The Office of U.S. Trade Representative this week will hold hearings on the trade agreement between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico in preparation for a review scheduled for next year.
Kenneth Smith Ramos, one of the Mexican negotiators for the pact, told U.S Meat Export Federation members he expects the three countries to ultimately stand by the trade agreement.
“We see turbulence in terms of the Mexico-U.S. trade relationship, of course, because of these tariffs that the U.S. has imposed,” Smith Ramos said. “We see a complex USMCA review, but we do not see a scenario where there is an imminent collapse of the agreement.”
He says the agricultural sectors of Mexico, the U.S., and Canada need to work together.
“Preserving the agreement as trilateral is very important,” Smith Ramos continued. “We have a very vibrant relationship as well with Canada, so pushing our governments to maintain a trilateral nature of the agreement and coming to agreements on key issues on China, on eliminating trade barriers, is essential.”
John Masswohl of the Canadian Cattle Association pointed out the importance of the Canadian market to U.S. agriculture.
“If you take the agriculture trade – U.S. agriculture exports to Canada, divide them by our population, and do it the other way around, every Canadian is consuming over $700 of U.S. agriculture goods, and every American is consuming just over $100 of Canadian agriculture goods,” he said. “It tells me that the Canadian market is pretty open, and that Canadians like American agricultural products.”
