\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
![\"Cam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/d812f3e896556069228534259edc9a48a4dffbbd9e89cb9dd91e1a0d137fc261.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCam Dahl, left, general manager of Manitoba Pork and Rick Prejet, chair of Manitoba Pork, pose for a photo at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, after they met with their American counterparts, on Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Kelly Geraldine Malone<\/p>\n
Pr\u00e9jet and Manitoba Pork general manager Cam Dahl were among a Manitoba-led Canadian delegation to the fair who met with local politicians and industry groups, including the Iowa Pork Producers Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are taking our message directly to where our priority stakeholders are,\u201d said Richard Madan, Manitoba\u2019s senior representative to the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeeting face-to-face is essential to strengthen relationships, build trust and deepen understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s Ambassador to the United States Mark Wiseman took park in the traditional pork chop flip \u2014 which was successful on the second try \u2014 and stood for photos with the Iowa Pork Queen Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald, Minneapolis Consul General Beth Richardson and representatives from Quebec and Alberta also attended.<\/p>\n
Manitoba Pork has long travelled to the state fair but the stakes are higher this year as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens a new round of hefty tariffs on an array of Canadian products. Ottawa has revved up negotiations in Washington to find an offramp to the 50 per cent duties set to go into place Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Manitoba ships more than three-million young pigs to the United States each year and about two million go directly to Iowa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not pushing those pigs down here. They\u2019re pulling them from us,\u201d Pr\u00e9jet said. \u201cThere\u2019s a need. There\u2019s a demand. We just kind of come down to just remind everybody the importance of our relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
While trade talks in the U.S. Capitol are important, on-the-ground diplomacy at the state level could help garner support for Canada outside the Beltway.<\/p>\n
Madan said the delegation strengthened relationships and received honest feedback on critical issues. They met with legislators, regulators, the local mayor and state leaders. They also held meetings with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Iowa\u2019s secretary of agriculture and the head of the farm bureau, among others.<\/p>\n
Iowa State Fair is known for being a political hotspot, with local and federal politicians continuously making their cases directly to voters on the so-called \u201csoap box\u201d on-site.<\/p>\n
United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and U.S. Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler were among the Trump administration heavy hitters who also made an appearance on the fairgrounds last week.<\/p>\n
Talking to local news stations and fair goers, Greer made the case for Trump\u2019s unpredictable tariff policies that have brought significant challenges to the agriculture-centred state.<\/p>\n
A group of farmers talking about trade at the fair on Friday mentioned how the state\u2019s soybean exports got hammered by China\u2019s retaliations to U.S. tariffs.<\/p>\n
But when asked about the looming duties on Canada they were more hesitant in their answers. The farmers said the tariffs were a response to Canada\u2019s dairy supply management system \u2014 which they claimed is unfair to U.S. producers \u2014 and the trade deficit, which is largely due to the U.S. purchase of Canadian oil.<\/p>\n
Canada is Iowa\u2019s largest customer, with the state exporting US$4.9 billion to America\u2019s northern neighbour in 2025. That represents 30 percent of Iowa\u2019s total exports.<\/p>\n
Iowa also imports US$3.2 billion in goods from Canada, many of which are agriculture or machinery products that support local industries that rely on the deeply integrated North American market.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be super, super honest, I don\u2019t know a lot about it,\u201d said 33-year-old Kaitlin Becker about Iowa\u2019s relationship with Canada.<\/p>\n
Becker isn\u2019t alone. Many Iowans at the fair didn\u2019t know about the state\u2019s relationship with Canada and didn\u2019t feel comfortable talking about the current upheaval caused by Trump\u2019s tariffs and threats of annexation.<\/p>\n
But U.S. agriculture and industry groups that spoke to the Canadian delegation shared that they were looking for stability and the continuation of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, known as CUSMA.<\/p>\n
Dahl said \u201cthe support from here is incredibly strong for our trade agreement.\u201d While Canadian agriculture has largely been shielded from Trump\u2019s tariffs so far, there is a lot of cross-border talk about making sure it stays that way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s well understood that both of us benefit. Producers benefit, processors benefit and consumers benefit,\u201d Dahl said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if that supply chain was going to be interrupted, everybody along the way would be hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump administration did not extend CUSMA in July. That triggered an annual rolling review of the trade deal for up to a decade, at which point it would expire if all three countries cannot come to an agreement for an extension.<\/p>\n
Mexico and the United States have launched official CUSMA negotiations, but Ottawa and Washington have not started such talks.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Many observers say Trump\u2019s latest tariffs threats are meant to push Canada to the negotiating table.<\/p>\n
Victoria Riley said she\u2019s very disappointed to see the bilateral relationship deteriorate because \u201cwe\u2019ve been such great neighbours with Canada forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she wants a return to how things were, adding \u201cwhen people start imposing tariffs nobody wins \u2014 we all lose.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe politics in this country are just messed up,\u201d the 69-year-old said at the fair Saturday.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 16, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DES MOINES \u2013 Pork is a popular topic at the Iowa State Fair as hungry patrons mow down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-860286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}