Bayer’s wheat breeding station at Pike Lake, Sask., southwest of Saskatoon. (Cropscience.bayer.com)

Canada clears Bayer’s Monsanto play, with conditions

Canada’s Competition Bureau says it’s “actively reviewing” BASF’s suitability as a buyer of the crop seed and chemical assets Bayer has to sell to get the bureau’s blessing to buy Monsanto. The Competition Bureau said Wednesday it has an agreement with Bayer to deal with “concerns that the proposed transaction would have significantly harmed competition […] Read more

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland in Washington, D.C. on May 31, 2017. (Global Affairs Canada screengrab via YouTube)

Freeland to visit Washington this week for NAFTA talks

Ottawa | Reuters — Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland will visit Washington this week in another bid to help unblock talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement, a spokesman said on Monday. Freeland will be in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday, said spokesman Adam Austen. The U.S., Mexico and Canada are struggling to […] Read more

Deere recalls loader attachments over manual omission

Deere recalls loader attachments over manual omission

Over 1,300 Deere front-end loader attachments sold in Canada are being recalled over what’s missing from their operator manuals. Deere and Co. and Health Canada on Thursday announced a recall for certain 120R John Deere loaders sold from May through September last year. “The ballasting information for the loader when attached to a John Deere […] Read more


Assembly of a 2014 Chevy Traverse at General Motors’ Lansing Delta Township assembly plant in Michigan. (John F. Martin photo for Chevrolet)

NAFTA nations ‘nowhere near’ a deal, USTR says

Washington/New York | Reuters — The top U.S. trade official on Thursday poured cold water on the prospect of an imminent breakthrough in talks to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) hours after Canada’s prime minister struck a positive note. “The NAFTA countries are nowhere near close to a deal,” U.S. Trade Representative […] Read more







U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan (left) tours ag retailer Blain’s Farm and Fleet with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in August 2017. (Paulryan.house.gov)

Ryan sets May 17 deadline for NAFTA deal

Washington | Reuters — U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan has set a May 17 deadline to be notified of a new NAFTA trade deal to give the current Congress a chance of passing it, while Mexico’s top trade official on Thursday said time was running short to meet such a deadline. Ryan, who controls legislation […] Read more