Dresden farmer and agricultural economist Philip Shaw thinks the new trade deal between Canada and the European Union is likely going to mean some changes for the dairy industry at home.
The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement — better known as CETA — was signed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday morning.
Shaw says while the deal is creating more access for Canadian farming products by removing roughly 98% of tariffs to the EU, the dairy sector is likely to take a hit.
"I think the supply managed sector would look at this as negative because we're looking at about a 2% cut in Canadian milk production and that's a pretty big deal," says Shaw. "Hogs and beef, it's probably positive for that and grain it doesn't really matter."
Shaw sees the new trade deal as "the race to cheap" — stressing simply exporting commodities would mean farmers taking lower prices.
"To me it'd be much better to add some value to these products," says Shaw. "Process them here in Canada first and then have free trade in processed agricultural products overseas to places like Europe and the United States for that matter."
The agreement still needs to be ratified by the European Parliament along with several other governments.
Ontario's International Trade Minister Michael Chan released a statement stressing CETA would lead to 30,000 new jobs in the province as well as boost Ontario's GDP by $4.5-billion.
— With files from Mike Vlasveld