An American trade deal? What will the effect be on British farming?

[Ball acre]

The Eurofighter is another example of something we should actually be buying from the US and building under license in the UK....

Didn't work out very well with AH being built in Yeovil if I recall.

 

[ollie989898]

Didn't work out very well with AH being built in Yeovil if I recall.

That is because no matter what the US sell the MOD always want to 'improve' it. AH-64 had all new engines, different avionics and they intended to field other weapons on it. I don't know why the UK seems to want to fudge about with so much technology all of the time.

 

[averageguy54]

How will the new trade deal USMCA help you guys' is it regarded as a positive move..?

The new USMCA deal is really a continuation of the old Free Trade deal but it now includes goods and services from Mexico. Basically it allows goods and services produced in one of the 3 countries to move back and forth across our mutual borders without restriction or tariffs. The biggest benefit to most of us is duty-free car parts and vehicles.These cross the borders duty free.

There some restrictions on agricultural commodities within the agreement,mostly on our end. We have a quota system within our country for dairy, eggs and chicken. This system ties production to consumption so there is a limited oversupply, resulting in a better price for the farmer.To produce these three commodities you have to purchase quota from the appropriate marketing board. There are exemptions for small production, for example, I'm allowed to have up to 199 egg layers without a quota, which won't make me a living but could easily fit into a small mixed farming venture. I'm allowed to sell these wherever I can find customers but in order to sell them to a retailer they must be processed through an egg grading station first. The marketing boards are owned by and operated for farmers. They usually hire staff to run the board but that staff has to answer to the farmers who have quota. This system greatly annoys the Americans because it closes the door to a flood of cheap milk, butter, cheese eggs and chicken caused by their deliberate oversupply of the home market in an effort to gain market share.
Other agricultural rules and regulations are not overridden by the free trade agreement. Mostly regulations involved are for food safety although the Americans are lax on enforcing whatever will adversely affect them. For example, a few years ago we reported a cow with BSE to the proper governing board as was required. This was 1 cow in 1 herd and she was not earmarked to go into the food chain. Within a few days the border to the US was slammed shut for live cattle imports into the US and stayed closed for months. But multiple reports of BSE in their herds did not result in them stopping exports to Canada. RThey are unable to send much meat into Canada because we prohibit any growth hormones in our meat products as well as dairy.

 

[Blaithin]

They are unable to send much meat into Canada because we prohibit any growth hormones in our meat products as well as dairy.

You’ll want to check your facts on that one.

 

[icanshootwell]

A couple things to be aware of is that American farmers are under no obligation to label GMO foods as such. They also have legislation,or a lack of it, that allows growth hormones in meat and dairy products, also not labelled. They will probably attack any sort of subsidy or support from government through whatever trade tribunal is set up with the agreement as unfair, however, they, despite their protestations, subsidize farming by paying farmers to not grow crops.

You lads need to start getting some homework done before a deal is made or announced and lobby government to ensure a reasonably level playing field. Rest assured, if the US is looking for a trade deal they have too large a surplus of commodity and they'll sell it at bargain basement prices.

Don,t worry, we got the NFU and red tractor to look after our interests.

 

[Lowland1]

If you listen to the fresh produce growers in South Florida these agreements are killing them as Mexico is sending lots of Beans,tomatoes and an squash at prices they cannot match. So its definitely not good news for those farmers

 

[yellow belly]

current uk cereal prices are very near to world prices with the eu exporting well ahead of last year

a long time to next year but we will have a big heap of barley to replace the feed wheat that is not planted
wheat consumers who have to use wheat will use up most of the wheat produced next year especially if we get a dry ish start to harvest with
the areas with the biggest areas not planted are in the middle of the country

what ever the trade deal we need to be able to label products with production method and origin we get plenty of free publicity that imported food is substandard

 

[averageguy54]

You’ll want to check your facts on that one.

I wasn't aware that we had okayed the use of growth hormones for meat destined for human consumption, or are we just allowing it to come across unlabelled.

 

[Blaithin]

I wasn't aware that we had okayed the use of growth hormones for meat destined for human consumption, or are we just allowing it to come across unlabelled.

I don’t know of a time we haven’t allowed hormone use in cattle for beef. Majority of all animals finished in the feedlot system will have been implanted at least once. They’re also available for use by producers in calves on the udder. None of them are technically growth hormones though, they’re usually some form of estrogen and progesterone.

The hormone that’s not allowed in dairy cattle is rBGH to increase milk production which is the bovine growth hormone.

Chickens aren’t allowed hormones and because of that quota I doubt any is really imported.

Pigs I’m unsure of. I don’t recall of ever hearing of hormone use in pigs. We do seem to do quite a bit of swapping of live animals across the border so if we don’t use them then it’s likely America doesn’t either.

 

[averageguy54]

I thought that there was a time when there were growth hormones being used in beef that got banned back when I was in Ag. college (1972) but perhaps it's been supplanted by estrogen and progesterone, or perhaps the fight was about them and their usage.

I couldn't remember the name of the bovine one, getting old I guess, or maybe senility kicking in. I know there was a chicken one but there was also animal parts in chicken feed and pig feed too. That had to come out. I'm not 100% sure of pigs either but I do know I've not seen US labelled pork in the stores, even Walmart.

In my end of the country there's not much shipping across the border with livestock. What get's shipped here goes mostly into Quebec and Ontario. I may have to renew my subscription to the Western Producer to catch up.

 

[Blaithin]

Live cattle are constantly crossing the border here. Lots of fats sent down to Washington for slaughter (Which was a kink in their COOL plan since they were technically Canadian cattle but were slaughtered in the US)

I was under the impression there's quite a bit of pigs transported across into Ontario. Always seems they go on high alert when there's that pig disease in the States just south of there.

Since I wasn't around in the 70's I couldn't really say if there was a throw down about implants and which kind to use There's been plenty of studies on the kind in use now though and many have been around for decades. Of all the things American's do or don't do to their meat production animals that we do or don't do, implants would be the lesser concern for me. Maybe one day they'll catch up to the rest of the world regarding animal traceability but that'll probably be after they switch to the metric system.

 

[pastit]

What ever the deal, lets hope it is fair. I remember approx. 15 years ago looking round Tesco, there on the shelf was Canadian chedder on offer undercutting our chedder, when our milk price was around the 16p mark and their price was 30p plus and had to travel across the atlantic.