OTTAWA (Staff) – Beef and grain sellers headed south last weekend to try to take advantage of opportunities created by Canada’s great salesman – prime minister Jean ChrŽtien.
The prime minister went south to sell Canada and its products in South and Central America. Close to 200 business owners went along.
The Canadian Wheat Board, Canadian Beef Breeds Council, Shore Holsteins International Ltd., Toronto beef trader Ronald A. Chisholm and McCain Foods Ltd. are represented on a trip to Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Costa Rica that ends Jan. 30.
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Government officials said the trip’s goal was to make business contacts and to raise the profile of Canadian products in a region that one day will be part of a hemispheric free trade zone.
Meanwhile, the day ChrŽtien left, the government released more evidence that Canada’s agricultural trade is booming.
To the end of November, food exports were valued at close to $16 billion, 13 percent higher than 1993 levels. The value of imports also soared more than 12 percent to $11.3 billion.
The $4.6 billion food trade surplus represented 30 percent of the total Canadian merchandise trade surplus of $14 billion in the first 11 months of the year. Canada ran a $25 billion surplus with the U.S., a small surplus with Japan and a large deficit with the rest of the world.
