Alberta farmer
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2008
- Messages
- 376
Mexico closed the border to one beef plant and 5 hog plants yesterday? They claim it was for "technical reasons" but was it? There is some opinion Mexico was retaliating for US COOL. Apparently COOL has dried up the importation of Mexican feeder/slaughter cattle...sort of the same thing happening on the northern border? Maybe Canada needs to get some balls and do the same as Mexico!
When you limit the number of cattle coming into the southern US, or the northern USA for that matter, what does that mean for US feedlots/packers who rely on imported cattle? Do they go out and pay more for US cattle or do they pack it in and go home?
The USA is a net importer of beef and cattle. Maybe we'd all be better off if we concentrated on our domestic markets and got our cattle numbers down to where we would only service those markets? Once we got in that position shut the door to any imports? It works pretty well in Canada for poultry and dairy...would it work for pork and beef? Seems kind of silly to produce a product that no other country wants!
There is a lot of talk out there that the US dollar will be going in the tank in the near future. It seems to me Canada has tied itself to a losing propostion by being such a large trading partner with the USA? Maybe it is time to get that pipeline built across the mountains to Prince Rupert so we can sell our oil to Asia and forget dealing with someone who doesn't want to honor her trade committments.
President elect Obama says he wants to renegotiate NAFTA. It seems to me that might be a good opportunity for Canada to escape? That will never happen as long as we have our current American lackey primeminister...but the new Liberal leader Ignatieff just might be a different story? We are probably about 6 months to a year from an election...and the majority of Canadians won't vote for Harper!
We are a trading nation and mostly we trade commodities...think oil, uranium, iron ore, nickel etc. The world is going to always need commodities, we don't have a lot of manufacturing. How about letting the highest bidder get our goods and forget about a trade deal with a partner that continually tries to beat us down?
When you limit the number of cattle coming into the southern US, or the northern USA for that matter, what does that mean for US feedlots/packers who rely on imported cattle? Do they go out and pay more for US cattle or do they pack it in and go home?
The USA is a net importer of beef and cattle. Maybe we'd all be better off if we concentrated on our domestic markets and got our cattle numbers down to where we would only service those markets? Once we got in that position shut the door to any imports? It works pretty well in Canada for poultry and dairy...would it work for pork and beef? Seems kind of silly to produce a product that no other country wants!
There is a lot of talk out there that the US dollar will be going in the tank in the near future. It seems to me Canada has tied itself to a losing propostion by being such a large trading partner with the USA? Maybe it is time to get that pipeline built across the mountains to Prince Rupert so we can sell our oil to Asia and forget dealing with someone who doesn't want to honor her trade committments.
President elect Obama says he wants to renegotiate NAFTA. It seems to me that might be a good opportunity for Canada to escape? That will never happen as long as we have our current American lackey primeminister...but the new Liberal leader Ignatieff just might be a different story? We are probably about 6 months to a year from an election...and the majority of Canadians won't vote for Harper!
We are a trading nation and mostly we trade commodities...think oil, uranium, iron ore, nickel etc. The world is going to always need commodities, we don't have a lot of manufacturing. How about letting the highest bidder get our goods and forget about a trade deal with a partner that continually tries to beat us down?
