NW Hort: USMCA About Tweaking A Good Deal

It’s not a done deal at this point, Canada still needs to approve the tri-lateral agreement, but most in the U.S. Ag industry are happy with USMCA.  For some commodities, such as wheat and dairy, it was a noticeable improvement.  For other, like the Northwest Horticultural Council, it was making improvements to an already good NAFTA agreement.

“We’re happy that it’s been signed and sealed, and still not delivered, right," said NW Horticultural president Mark Powers.  "Canada’s got to go through its process yet, but it provides certainty. That’s one of the key words you’re going to hear, I think, out of a lot of folks in agriculture.”

Powers noted that for this deal to be good for the local Horticulture sector, there needed to be duty-free access, and certainty.

“The other things have to do with trade remedies. For instance, how do you settle disputes? And, our apple growers, anyway, have been on the receiving end of anti-dumping cases from both Canada and Mexico. And, the rules there still I think are favorable to settling disputes and, you know, they’re no worse than they were before. Let’s put it that way.”

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