The Trump administration has been hampered by the Democrat opposition party trying everything to delay confirmation of Trump appointees. So it was mid-May before the U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer was finally confirmed, nearly four months after the inauguration. That factor, plus Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s confirmation only a couple of weeks earlier, hampered the […] Read more
Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer
As Canadians who closely follow American politics know, the Democrats have not suffered their loss gracefully. But it’s not party hacks but citizens who suffer from obstructionist tactics. Of the 4,000 or so appointments needing Senate confirmation, only two or three dozen had been confirmed by mid-April. One of those delays could definitely affect trade […] Read more
Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer
As if trade relations with the States under a new president weren’t uncertain enough for Canadians, the tax reform plan the Republicans introduced suddenly shows up with a nasty, anti-import provision in it. Suddenly, because in all the discussions over the last couple of years regarding big tax reform proposal — long before anyone knew Trump […] Read more
Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer
One thing Canadian cattlemen can be certain of, they are not alone in their concern regarding trade, its importance to agriculture, or how it will be handled by the new Trump administration. At the U.S. cattle industry convention in February, anywhere from 250 to 400 cattlemen attended separate committee sessions on international marketing and export […] Read more
Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer
Candidate Donald Trump was not an unquestioned free trader. While he harped on China frequently, and Mexico and NAFTA considerably, he claimed he wasn’t against free trade as long as it was fair trade. I have hoped that he would fulfill his promises to recover manufacturing job losses in America’s midwestern Rust Belt with major […] Read more
Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer
As is often true with proposed regulation, it helps to consider the source in evaluating the origin, impetus and motivation. With the attempted resurrection of then GIPSA administrator J. Dudley Butler’s so-called “GIPSA Rule,” the cast of proponents is very similar to mCOOL, with which Canadians are all too familiar. R-CALF, the Organization for Competitive Markets […] Read more
We put on our most entertaining presidential campaign ever down here for Canadian cattlemen. Now, it’s on to a whole new reality on both sides of the border. What can Canadians expect from President Trump? There is definite good news. Three times before in American history, an administration has applied a free market, supply-side approach […] Read more
Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer
The New York Times Magazine recently continued its war on conventional agriculture by giving considerable space to contributing editor Michael Pollan, the UC-Berkeley journalism professor who has made it his goal to replace modern agriculture with something producing only food his “great-grandmother would recognize.” Pollan’s latest* offering recounts how his letter in 2008 warned incoming […] Read more
While free market cattlemen and their associations operate similarly, whether Canadian or American, there are some differences, especially with regard to their government. While some Canadian associations can receive both government funds and government engagement in promoting and defending the beef industry, it’s different in America. No government funds go to any beef industry trade […] Read more
I’m writing this 60 days out from the 2016 U.S. elections. Given that this election has followed no established rules or expectations up to this point, that may not be much of a disadvantage. I’ve said ever since the disaster in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, that I really didn’t think Hillary Clinton would be […] Read more
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