The American Farm Bureau, National Cotton Council, and dozens of other trade groups wrote President Biden ahead of a Canadian rail strike deadline today, warning of possible huge shutdown impacts.
AFB and the Cotton Council set off alarm bells over the labor dispute as two Canadian rail companies continued negotiating with unions right up until a shutdown deadline. The U.S. groups wrote President Biden that a rail strike or lockout would trigger “harmful consequences for American and Canadian Ag producers” and for global food security.
American Farm Bureau Economist Danny Munch shares details on 2023 U.S. exports saying, “We exported 28.2 billion dollars of Ag products into Canada, and that made Canada number three, as you mentioned. In the same year, we imported 40 billion dollars of Canadian agricultural products into the United States and imported quite a bit of inputs, such as fertilizer. And that makes them second, just behind Mexico.”
Not all products move by rail, but Munch says a lot do. He says, “By value, most of the Canadian agricultural products do move by truck, but when we talk about cereal grains, corn, barley, oats, and things like that, a lot of those products move by rail into Canada.”
The Canadian government rejected calls to intervene, and Union Pacific here said the shutdown would sideline more than 2,500 rail cars a day. One of the largest U.S. unions told members not to cross any picket lines. AFB’s Munch says, “Our three biggest pathways into Canada for railways, there’s two in North Dakota, and there’s one in Detroit. So, it also impacts some of your heartland states. Southern and Upper Midwest, this will have a rippling effect that can cost those states as well.”
Some farm products loop through Canada back down to the U.S. Pacific Northwest and East Coast ports for export overseas.
Story by Matt Kaye, Berns Bureau; courtesy of NAFB News Service