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CBOT weekly outlook: Impeachment process stifles markets

MarketsFarm — U.S. President Donald Trump’s impeachment hearings have dominated headlines and stalled progress in numerous trade developments, leaving the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) starved of meaningful news. The Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) has yet to be ratified by the U.S. House of Representatives. The trade pact, meant to replace the North American Free Trade […] Read more

Marie-Claude Bibeau speaks at a Montreal convention on March 7, 2019.  Photo: Allan Dawson/File

Bibeau remains federal agriculture minister in shuffle

Updated, Nov. 21— Quebec MP Marie-Claude Bibeau retains her role as federal minister of agriculture and agri-food in Wednesday’s cabinet shake-up for the Liberals’ minority government. Bibeau will join her colleagues — including returning Transport Minister Marc Garneau and new Labour Minister Filomena Tassi, a Hamilton MP and former minister for seniors — in having […] Read more

Predictable trading rules have meant advantages for Canadian companies who can follow them and gain access 
to international markets.

New trade order called bad news for Canada

A new report says Canada and its farmers aren’t equipped to deal with a move away from the ‘liberal world order’

Glacier FarmMedia – Farmers face a starkly worsened long-term world market for their crops and livestock, fears a Canadian agricultural economics analysis firm. And that means many basic assumptions of how farm markets and prices behave might have to be radically reconsidered. “Some of the assumptions of the liberal world order — price arbitrage and […] Read more

Opinion: Current trade environment not just an either/or scenario

Canada needs to push for a rules-based, free-trade world, but also to push back against countries resorting to coercion

Glacier FarmMedia – At some point we might have to accept that this new trade reality is actually real. Then we’ll have to react to that reality by changing the way we farm, act and interact with the rest of the world. That’s something quite a few Canadians are grappling with in light of the […] Read more

Photo: Canada Beef Inc/Getty Images

China to resume imports of Canadian beef and pork

Reuters – China will resume imports of Canadian beef and pork, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday, some four months after Beijing blocked shipments amid an escalating diplomatic feud between the two countries. “Good news for Canadian farmers today: Canadian pork and beef exports to China will resume,” Trudeau tweeted. The Chinese embassy in […] Read more



The Canola Council of Canada hopes Canada and China’s first meeting on the canola seed dispute will lead to a resumption of Canadian canola seed exports to what was Canada’s biggest export customer.  Photo: File/Greg Berg

Canada, China meet over canola stalemate

[UPDATED: Oct. 31, 2019] Glacier FarmMedia – Canada and China finally had a face-to-face meeting *Oct. 28 in Geneva on China’s de facto import ban of Canadian canola seed. The private consultation under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) went well, according to Brian Innes, the Canola Council of Canada’s *vice-president of public […] Read more

A group of oil tankers moored at a Texas oil refinery just outside of Houston, Texas.  Photo: ArtWager/E+/Getty Images

Oil vs Corn: U.S. lawmakers set hearing on fractious biofuels policy

The U.S. oil and corn industries will continue a long-running public battle over America’s biofuels policy on Tuesday during a Congressional hearing about the Trump administration’s use of “secret waivers” for refineries. The hearing set by the Energy and Commerce Committee will air out the grievances of two key political constituencies heading into next year’s […] Read more


Excessive amounts of fall moisture in the form of rain and snow has practically ensured that grain drying will be necessary for any remaining crops to be harvested.  Photo: File

Carbon costs affecting grain drying for Prairie farmers

Opponents say the rebates won't fully cover the additional costs farmers must pay

Glacier FarmMedia – Farmers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta struggling to get their crops harvested will also be paying higher costs for drying thanks to the federal carbon levy. While the federal carbon price offers relief for gasoline and light fuel oil costs used in tractors and trucks, there is no exemption for grain drying […] Read more

Canadian International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr speaks at the first China-Canada economic and financial strategy dialogue in Beijing on Nov. 12, 2018.  Photo: Reuters/Jason Lee/Pool

Key federal minister in Canada/China dispute fighting cancer

Just days after two senior cabinet ministers from the Prairies were defeated in Monday’s federal election, the Liberal government is now facing the possibility of a third stepping away from cabinet. International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr from Manitoba announced on Friday that he has been diagnosed with a type of blood cancer known as […] Read more