On Friday, while meeting in Buenos Aires for the G20, Canada, the United States and Mexico signed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the revised North American free trade agreement.

Andrew Dickson, the General Manager of Manitoba Pork, says from a pork perspective, the border will remain open under the agreement.

Mr Dickson said, "Of course the issue between Mexico and the United States on tariffs on pork have to be resolved but the key thing here is this is a long term agreement, there is a dispute settlement mechanism built into the agreement and that'll help in any further issues that we have as the years move along.

I think the key to remember on this thing is that the United States is a huge market for us, Mexico is big market for us as well and Mexico is a big market for the United States for pork."

By having this free flow of goods, it also brings certainty into the whole business because these are stable markets so businesses can continue to develop and grow, Mr Dickson noted.

He said, "Then it gives them a platform by which we can start expanding into things like the Trans-Pacific Partnership that was just recently signed.

"We're very pleased with these agreements that the federal government has been able to achieve over the past four or five years.

"This is Europe, now North America and the Trans-Pacific agreement.

"They all play a key part.

"And the federal government has indicated that they're in the process now of trying to look at expanding their efforts in the Asian area so hopefully we can come to some sort of arrangement with China and Indonesia and other countries."

Mr Dickson acknowledges the USMCA still must receive final approval from each of the three governments involved.

As reported by Bruce Cochrane, Farmscape.Ca