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


(WhiteHouse.gov)

Trump proposes US$100 billion more in new tariffs on China

Washington | Reuters — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had instructed U.S. trade officials to consider US$100 billion in additional tariffs on China, fueling an already heated trade dispute between the world’s two biggest economies. Trump said in a statement the further tariffs were being considered “in light of China’s unfair retaliation” […] Read more




As of this month, all front-line RCMP officers in rural Manitoba have been equipped with naloxone kits to assist people who have come into contact with opioids. (Photo courtesy Manitoba RCMP)

Farmers seen harder hit by opioid crisis than rest of rural U.S.

Chicago | Reuters — The opioid crisis in the United States is impacting farm and ranch families more acutely than their rural neighbours, according to a survey published by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and the U.S. National Farmers Union on Thursday. About three-quarters of farmers and ranchers surveyed said a family member, someone […] Read more

Farm groups, ag tech companies agree on data privacy standards

Reuters — A consortium of farmer organizations and agriculture data technology providers on Thursday published a set of data privacy and security principles aimed at reassuring farmers that data they share with Big Data services providers will not be misused. The non-binding principles are also meant to provide companies that collect, store and analyze farmer […] Read more