After more than two decades, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) terms of agreement are on the table and discussions are set to begin Wednesday, raising some questions in southern Alberta.
Kolk Farms, a primarily beef and cattle feedlot in Iron Springs, Alta., does a good portion of its business with the United States.
Operations manager Jordan Kolk says he doesn’t have any issue with the current agreement.
“It has allowed us to maintain a lot of cross-border shipping without many large headaches or trade barriers,” he said.
Kolk says he’ll be keeping a close eye on the negotiations — as he should be, according to political science professor Geoffrey Hale.
“The biggest trade-exposed industry in this area is the agri-food sector, particularly the cow/calf operators and the cattle and meat industries, generally.”
Hale agrees the current trade situation for southern Alberta farmers is generally fair. He says minor issues could be addressed, but with the terms of the agreement on the table, anything is possible.
“We have industries which are heavily protected, like the dairy and poultry sectors where the Americans are going to want to get more access to Canadian markets. Consumers might agree, producers might disagree. There will be trade-offs,” Hale said.
U.S. President Donald Trump made renegotiating the free trade agreement a key part of his election campaign. Trump once called it the “worst trade deal maybe ever signed, anywhere,” during a pre-election debate with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’s looking forward to a modernization of NAFTA.
But Kolk isn’t ready to hit the panic button just yet, as it will be months before negotiations are complete.
“We do a lot of business with the U.S.,” he said. “They ship lots of corn and soybean products across the border here, and we trade beef products back and forth across the border. What’s in our best interest is probably in their best interest as well.”
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