Farmscape for February 27, 2017

The Vice President of the World Trade Centre Winnipeg says Canadian companies that do business in the U.S. need to be prepared for changes in U.S. trade policy.
The World Trade Centre Winnipeg is a member of the World Trade Centre Association headquartered in New York City and its mandate is to promote trade and investment and support Manitoba companies that are interested in doing business internationally.
In response to uncertainty resulting from changing trade policies under U.S. President Donald Trump, the World Trade Centre Winnipeg will host a seminar "What’s in it for U.S. eh?" tomorrow.
Derek Earl, the Vice President of the World Trade Centre Winnipeg, says key issues right now relate to talk of ending NAFTA, the implications of expanding the "Buy American" policy, the possible reintroduction of Country of Origin Labelling and other ongoing trade issues such as softwood lumber.

Clip-Derek Earl-World Trade Centre Winnipeg:
Anything that leads to a quote "thickening of the border" will be definite issues that may affect exporters here.
If there's any changes to the NAFTA agreement that affect tariff levels or costs of doing business in the United States and how it might respond if there are more "Buy American" type of policies.
With the new administration being elected in the United States and talk of a different tone and perhaps a different direction when it comes to free trade and a different stance towards NAFTA, these are all areas of vital concern to Canada and to our business community as well.
It's certainly garnered a lot of attention and media coverage.

Earl suggests Canadian businesses that could be impacted by changing U.S. trade policies need to ensure they have access to the right information and that they have strategies in place to deal with any changes, whether that involves diversifying their markets or supply chains or looking at more investment led strategies where they build a presence in the United States as part of the platform to do business south of the border.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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