The Association of South East Asian Nations includes Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.

Exporters rejoice as Canada launches ASEAN trade negotiations

Southeast Asia is the fastest growing economy in the world, and offers increased export opportunities

Glacier FarmMedia – Canada’s export-oriented agriculture organizations were quick to cheer Canada’s announcement of trade deal negotiations with the Association of South East Asian Nations trading bloc. “As a market of over 640 million people with a (gross domestic product) of $3.6 trillion, Canadian agri-food exporters see huge potential in the fast growing and dynamic […] Read more

A renewed commitment to the World Trade Organization, mainly by the U.S., is necessary to reinvigorate global agriculture trade, says a former trade negotiator.

U.S. leadership needed to push freer agriculture trade

Trade negotiation insiders say bilateralism won’t go away, but rules enforcement needed

Glacier FarmMedia – Huge gains in freeing up global agricultural trade in the 1990s and early 2000s came about through American leadership — and it’s needed again. So says Mike Gifford, Canada’s former chief agricultural trade negotiator who retired from that role in 2000. Why it matters: Canadian farmers rely on exports for much of […] Read more

Container companies are choosing to eliminate the backhaul from Canada, which hurts exports, Pulse Canada says.

Ottawa urged to tackle shipping container crisis

Pulse Canada says farmers and the entire Canadian economy are being damaged

The Canadian government must address the container crunch hurting the country’s crop growers and every part of the Canadian economy, says Pulse Canada. “It’s no secret that life is getting more expensive by the day here in Canada, and the lack of containers is playing a big role in driving up the cost of living […] Read more

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, seen here testifying before the Senate finance committee in May, said in a recent speech that the government remains concerned over what she called China’s “state-centric and non-market trade practices.”

Chinese trade practices still a concern for U.S.

U.S. Trade Representative says former administration’s policies will remain in place but also vows to apply more pressure

Glacier FarmMedia – The United States plans to keep pressure on China to conform to world trading standards. However, in an Oct. 4 speech, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai offered few details on how she thinks China can be forced to change. “It is increasingly clear China’s plans do not include meaningful reforms to address […] Read more

Photo: WTO

China calls for overhaul of farm subsidy rules under WTO

Beijing | Reuters – China on Thursday called for the removal of “enormous” farm subsidies in some developed countries as part of Beijing’s push for reform of the World Trade Organization. “There are very unfair rules in the agriculture sector, and enormous subsidies some developed country members are entitled to, that severely distort international agricultural trade,” Wang […] Read more



Shipping companies can make more money if they ship goods from Asia, unload them in North America and then immediately ship the empties back to Asia for quick turnaround rather than wait for them to be loaded with products such as identity-preserved soybeans.

Shipping container crisis may last into 2022

Shipping companies find it more lucrative to ship empty containers than to wait for a backhaul

Glacier FarmMedia – A truck pulls up to a yard to pick up empty containers to ship Canadian soybeans to Asia. But the shipping company refuses to allow the trucker into the yard. It prefers to ship empty containers back to Asia. Thousands of bushels of identity-preserved soybeans, in this real-life situation of the past […] Read more

WTO to examine U.S.-China dispute on grain import quotas

The World Trade Organization says it will review a long-standing dispute between China and the United States on Beijing’s use of import controls for rice, wheat and corn. The Geneva-based trade watchdog ruled in 2019 against China’s use of tariff-rate quotas for agricultural imports, which Washington successfully argued had limited market access for U.S. grain […] Read more


Editorial: Shipping container conundrum

Editorial: Shipping container conundrum

What would you do if someone told you the economic model of your business could be changed and you could earn $20,000 per unit instead of $2,000? It would be a no brainer right? What if it imperiled other businesses in other parts of the world and threatened food security? Still hard to turn down […] Read more

The World Trade Organization’s agri-food agreement is decades old and out of date, and observers say a new agreement must limit the scope for non-tariff trade barriers such as phytosanitary standards.

Trading nations hope for reinvigorated WTO

Countries from three continents plan to meet later this year to begin the process of fixing the World Trade Organization

Glacier FarmMedia – Food exporters and importers on three continents are hoping the World Trade Organization (WTO) can get back on its feet, and soon. They also hope an upcoming summit will put the WTO on a path that not only returns it to previous functionality but also helps it climb higher on the evolutionary […] Read more