Ottawa | Reuters –– The Canadian government and the 10 provinces on Monday settled a disagreement on how to split the revenues from a proposed federal tax on the sale of marijuana once the drug is legalized, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said. Morneau told reporters that for an initial two years, 75 per cent of […] Read more

Feds, provinces end dispute on how to split pot tax revenues

Brazil police serving warrants linked to JBS tax probe
Sao Paulo | Reuters — Brazil’s federal police are serving 14 search warrants on Monday in connection with a bribery probe implicating meatpacker JBS SA and tax authorities, they said in a statement. The raids are based on plea bargain testimony by JBS executives who suggested that 160 million reais (C$62 million) in bribes were […] Read more

Russia to boost grain transport subsidies in 2018
Moscow | Reuters — Russia will spend two billion roubles (C$43 million) in grain transportation subsidies to help to speed exports in 2018, the deputy agriculture minister said on Thursday. Already among the world’s largest wheat exporters, Russia is trying to step up a gear after this year’s record crop, which is keeping its grain […] Read more

Ukraine’s parliament extends ban on farmland sales
Kiev | Reuters — The Ukrainian parliament voted on Thursday to extend a ban on the sale of agricultural land by one year, delaying what financial backers say is a key reform essential to Ukraine’s long-term economic growth. The bill was backed by 236 lawmakers, narrowly over the 226 required to pass. Currently Ukraine’s more […] Read more

JBS says listing of U.S. unit remains priority
Sao Paulo | Reuters — Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA said listing a subsidiary in the U.S. remained a priority, even as two controlling shareholders in the company remain in jail for insider trading and their role in a corruption scandal. The long-planned initial public offering of its processed food subsidiary JBS Foods International BV was […] Read more

Canada pans India’s ‘discriminatory treatment’ over pulses
Winnipeg | Reuters — Canada on Wednesday accused India of “discriminatory treatment” against it in a dispute over $1.1 billion worth of Canadian pulse crop exports. Canada normally ships much of the peas, lentils and other protein-rich pulse crops its farmers grow to India, where they are a staple of many diets. But earlier this […] Read more

U.S. corn, soy acreage to expand in 2018-19, USDA says
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. farmers are likely to expand plantings of both corn and soybeans while reducing wheat seedings for the upcoming marketing year, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Tuesday. The USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist forecast that farmers will seed 91 million acres of corn in the 2018-19 crop year, up […] Read more

Mexico court rejects appeal to lift GM corn ban
Mexico City | Reuters –– A Mexican court has rejected a company’s appeal to lift a ban on commercial planting of transgenic corn in Mexico, passing the matter to the Supreme Court, a lawyer for the firm said Friday. A federal court in Mexico City rejected the suit by PHI Mexico, a unit of U.S. […] Read more

China to subsidize grain transportation, storage
Beijing | Reuters — China plans to subsidize grain transportation and storage facilities in the latest push by Beijing to modernize the world’s largest agriculture sector. Beijing will subsidize projects upgrading or building facilities to load and receive grains along main railways and ports for major waterways including the Yangtze and Pearl rivers, a document […] Read more

StatsCan to add marijuana economic impact to GDP data
Ottawa | Reuters — As Canada gears up to legalize recreational marijuana, the country’s statistics agency said on Tuesday it will begin measuring the economic impact of the current illegal use and production of the drug and add it to growth data. Statistics Canada said it will begin tallying the production and sale of cannabis […] Read more