Canada’s Dairy Industry may not be pleased with the new USMCA but the Beef sector is.

John Masswohl is the Director of Government and International Relations with the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.

He says unlimited duty-free access that we built the Canadian beef sector on for the last 25 years is now preserved and secured.

“No tariffs on beef, no tariffs on cattle. The rules of origin haven’t changed, we like that the way it is. There’s been no new restrictions come in, the dispute settlement has been preserved. So, that’s all really positive and I think that is going to be a huge relief to a lot of cattle producers that are going to be selling their animals in the next few days and weeks.”

He says knowing that the agreement is finally done and there are no real changes for the beef sector, producers and feedlot operators are breathing a sigh of relief.

“Now with the secure access, we hope that cattle feeders are going to say hey we got that secure access to the U-S. We’ve got the CPTPP coming in let’s get aggressive and get these feedlots full in Western Canada and Eastern Canada as well. We’re starting to see some of that, I think we’ve actually seen feeder cattle coming up from the U-S and that’s a really positive sign in terms of added value here in Canada.”

He notes it’s always a challenging endeavor negotiating agreements like this, adding that the Canadian negotiating team are real pro’s and know what they were doing for sure.