Alberta beef has regained access to Mexican markets.
Following the conclusion of the North American leaders summit — dubbed the ‘Three Amigos talks’ last week, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto agreed to reopen his country’s market to Canadian beef, and Barrhead-Westlock-Morinville MLA Glenn van Dijken said he thinks this is critical to the success of the province’s beef industry.
“I think any time we have trade restrictions removed, it validates the product that we are selling,” van Dijken said, adding with such a large beef industry in the province, a move like this only serves to validate the product globally.
Accordingly, you can now count the number of countries that continue to impose restrictions on Canadian beef on one hand, he said.
“It bodes well in all of the regions where we trade and is good news all around,” he said, adding it brings to light the high quality product Albertan beef producers are bringing to market.
It might sound like just one market is opening up, but combined with the elimination of country-of-origin-labeling (COOL), this means more access to world markets van Dijken said.
“In my opinion, COOL was more about protectionist policy in the United States and years were spent fighting to get that lifted,” he added.
While the impact of COOL may be lessening on both the beef and hog industries, van Dijken said, battles are still being fought on the lamb and sheep industry fronts.
“We are an exporting nation and we are certainly an exporting province, and having access to markets is very important to the success of Alberta. Moving forward, I think it will be business as usual now that this agreement has been reached,” he said.
The consequences of the decision might not be easy to put a handle on because the United States is Canada’s largest beef customer, van Dijken said, adding he believes the ramifications will be subtle.
“I believe every time you are trying to build product and brand awareness throughout the world, every restriction that gets lifted helps to increase the value of it, and I think that is critical to the success of our industries,” he added.
Despite the feel-good moment for the Canadian beef industry, van Dijken said he was concerned with Mexico’s requirement that visa restrictions be lifted.
“That is a big part of the story and it needs to be discussed with the leaders of our two countries more in depth, in my opinion, but because it is at the federal level and I only know a little bit about it, I can’t really comment on it,” he said.
Part of any negotiation is give-and-take, he said, adding the Liberal agreement to lift the restrictions for Mexican nationals — a move instituted by the Harper government in 2009, makes him nervous.
