THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2014
VOL. 92 | NO. 11 | $4.25
The food trap The mix of ingredients that encourages overeating | P. 19
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TRADE | SOUTH KOREA
Trade deal could help meat compete
Feds impose grain targets
Canada hopes to regain pork and beef access BY ROBERT ARNASON BRANDON BUREAU
After nearly a decade of negotiations, Canada’s meat industry is relieved that prime minister Stephen Harper will sign a free trade agreement with South Korea. The prime minister flew to Seoul on the weekend and was expected to sign a trade deal with South Korean president Park Guen-hye March 11. Details of the deal were not available at press time, but meat industry representatives said the agreement would help restore competitiveness in South Korea, a market that bought more than $230 million of Canadian pork in 2011 and $40 million of beef before the BSE crisis hit in 2003. The United States signed a free trade agreement with South Korea in 2012, and the Asian country has lowered tariffs on American pork and beef over the last two years.
BY BRIAN CROSS SASKATOON NEWSROOM
A federal order that imposes minimum weekly quotas on the amount of western grain that the major railways must haul comes as welcome relief to the prairie grain industry. Canada’s major railway companies will be required to carry a combined total of one million tonnes of western Canadian grain each week, the equivalent of about 5,500 rail cars a week for each railway. Railways have a grace period of four weeks to ramp up their operations to meet the new limits. After that, failure to meet the quota could result in fines as high as $100,000 per day. Grain shippers welcomed the order but industry observers already doubt that the quotas will be achieved on a consistent basis. “I think it’s going to be a challenge,” said Mark Hemmes, president of Quorum Corp., which runs the Grain Monitoring Program. “The issue is not about whether you can do a week or two like this. The issue is whether you can do this week, after week … on a sustained basis.” Details of the federal order are sketchy. Transport Canada official Josianne Martel said in an email that the railways must report to the transport minister weekly. Martel’s email contained no details about how the railways would report their weekly movements, how weekly reports would be scrutinized and what would constitute a tonne of grain carried. SEE FEDERAL GOV’T, PAGE 3
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SEE TRADE AGREEMENT, PAGE 2
MARCH 13, 2014 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Box 2500, Saskatoon, SK. S7K 2C4
Todd Wagner of Troyer Enterprises Ltd. washed bale handling equipment in preparation for the Peace Country Classic Agri-Show held in Grande Prairie, Alta., March 6-8. | RANDY VANDERVEEN PHOTO
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