It seems that many of you have not followed the Canadian news for the last 11 years. In 2016 Trudeau signed a trade deal with von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission. CERTA has never been implemented because 11 EU countries refused to ratify the deal unless Canada was dismantling its 80 marketing boards (supply management organizations to protect Canadian farmers) on agricultural products. These boards subsidy farmers by taxing the Canadian customer and raising fees and duties on all agricultural imports. During Trump first mandate all trade agreements failed for the same reason. These marketing boards favour mostly Québec and Ontario. Before the last round of negotiations mid-August the Premier of Québec Christine Fréchette told publicly to Carney: “You don’t dare touch or negotiate our marketing boards in Washington”. Most dairy, poultry, meat products and cereals are the monopoly of Agropur, Saputo, Maple Leaf, Cargill, Andjelic, Monette Farms, Avenue Living, etc…all located in Ontario and Québec and Midwest for cereals. No PM had the guts to remove these boards because Ontario and Québec have more Liberal MPs than any other province and the Bloc Québécois with its 21 MPs can put the government in minority. Trump has reiterated a few times he won’t deal with Canada while these barriers exist. Meanwhile 40 million Canadians are subsiding 150,000 farmers. Trump does not need Canada since Mexico became the first trading partner in 2023 with US$263 billion of exchanges. Many corporations are relocating to the US (517 hi-tech firms since 2015), the last major one in the timber industry Interfors moved its headquarters from BC to Atlanta.Canada has lost the battle.
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