Government of Canada Hosts Roundtable on NAFTA with Agricultural Stakeholders

As Canada, the United States and Mexico continue to work towards modernizing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Government of Canada remains committed to hearing from Canadians from across the country about trade

The Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, and the Honourable Andrew Leslie, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Canada-U.S. Relations), today held a roundtable with Canadian agricultural stakeholders, ranging from beef to dairy to grains.

“Our Government will continue to work together with Canadian farmers to ensure trade remains an engine of growth and prosperity for our nations”

 

“A strong NAFTA is important for our farmers and our economy,” Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food said during a press conference. “Millions of sector jobs across North America are supported by NAFTA, which has helped grow agricultural trade between our three nations to $85 billion annually.”

Discussions focused on how the sector can maximize the benefits of a modernized NAFTA and look at ways to make North America an even stronger agricultural market.

“Since NAFTA was signed 23 years ago, North American trade in agriculture and food has quadrupled, and last year North America exported over a quarter of a trillion dollars in agri-food products to the world,” added Andrew Leslie, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Canada-U.S. Relations). “Our success in recent decades is due in large part to the value of our trading relationships, and to the hard work of our agriculture and agri-food industries.”

NAFTA has nearly quadrupled agricultural trade in North America over the past 25 years, with trilateral trade reaching nearly USD$1 trillion in 2016.

Macaulay concluded by saying, “Our Government will continue to work together with Canadian farmers to ensure trade remains an engine of growth and prosperity for our nations.”