U.S. tariffs threatening pork production in Ontario

An Ottawa pork producer says a 25 per cent tariff would make sending his pigs south of the border unsustainable. CTV’s Dylan Dyson reports.

Ottawa’s only pork producer says a looming U.S. tariff of 25 per cent would make sending his pigs south of the border unsustainable – and due to inter-provincial trade barriers, there is nowhere else to send them.

At Panmure Farms in Ottawa’s west end, farmer Bruce Hudson says 80 per cent of his pigs are exported to the United States for processing.

“All my pigs, except for what I sell locally, go to the U.S.,” says Hudson.

“So roughly 3,000 pigs go to the U.S. on an annual basis from me. But 25,000 a week go from Ontario into the U.S.”

The rapidly evolving economic situation between Canada and the United States has Hudson considering his future in the pork industry. The threat of impending American tariffs would see the cost to ship his pigs triple.

“It currently costs us about $20 for each pig to go to Hazelton, Pennsylvania. That’s where the plant is I ship to, and a tariff would add probably another $60 to $70 on top of that.”

Hudson, a sixth-generation farmer, says the financial hit from any American tariffs could cripple the pork industry in eastern Ontario, which only has a handful of producers remaining.

“I could withstand for a few weeks, maybe. But if it’s going to be a long term, I’m doing the business for nothing. You’re certainly losing money.”

Hudson says one way the burden could be shouldered would be dropping interprovincial trade barriers between Ontario and the rest of Canada.

Currently a number of rules and regulations around meat production restrict pork from being shipped from Canadian processing plants to other parts of the country.

“Whether it’s in Ontario or Quebec, you can’t cross borders. You have to be to be a federally inspected plant before you can cross borders,” says Hudson.

SeoRhin Yoo, a senior policy analyst on interprovincial affairs at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) says there is a sense of protectionism among provinces when it comes to exporting goods internally, and adhering to multiple provincial regulations is challenging for small businesses.

But Yoo says money is being left on the table by provinces that are choosing to uphold these regulations.

“In a 2019 IMF study, it was estimated that having the internal trade barriers is essentially the equivalent of having a 21 per cent tariff on ourselves,” she tells CTV News.

“We could potentially boost the economy by $200 billion if we were to mutually recognize and remove the internal trade barriers that we do have right now.”

The CFIB says relaxing such trade barriers would soften the blow of any U.S. tariffs, but the speed at which provinces choose to act would make the difference for Canada’s small businesses.

“It could be extremely easy if they go the route of mutual recognition, meaning that each of the jurisdictions recognize that the regulations are different, but it’s good enough for their citizens.”

“For a sustainable product for consumers to have on the dinner table, we maybe have differences, but in the end, we’re producing the products that we can serve,” says Hudson.

“We’re Canadian, we all grow the same product. And it shouldn’t be any different between provinces.”