Chicago - Canada should step up its effort to resolve a labor dispute at an Ontario meatpacker that has helped divert thousands of Canadian hogs into the United States, the head of the Senate Agriculture Committee said.
“Pork prices are at levels similar to those in 1972,” Sen. Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, said in a statement summarizing a letter he sent to the Canadian ambassador to the U.S., Raymond Chretien.
“Such conditions create difficult times for pork producers in the United States and their counterparts in Canada. We must work together to improve the economic conditions facing our pork producers,” Lugar said.
Lugar's home state of Indiana is a top hog producer.
In his letter, Lugar called on the Canadian government to resolve the labor dispute that has closed the pork plant of Quality Foods in Ontario, which has a slaughter capacity of 25,000 hogs per week. Canadian hog exports to the U.S. have risen, in part, because of the plant's closing, Lugar said.
Last month, Lugar wrote President Bill Clinton asking him to work with Canada to lower its hog exports to the United States and open up Canada to U.S. exports of live hogs.
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