Obama upbeat on prospects for Pacific trade deal

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he was confident Pacific Rim nations could nail down an agreement on a free-trade pact this year although approval by the U.S. Congress was not guaranteed.

Watson: Time to stop milking consumers

Scrolling through some data the other day — it’s the sort of thing we economists do — I ran across a number that struck me. It was on the website of the Canadian Dairy Information Centre, in their historical statistics section. In 2013, the latest year listed, Canada produced 78.2 million hectolitres of milk.

Ottawa plans compensation for farmers to blunt impact of trade deal

The federal government is preparing a financial compensation package for Canadian dairy and poultry farmers as a way to blunt the impact of signing onto a massive Pacific Rim trade deal which could allow a surge of agricultural imports from other countries, sources said.

China's Unprecedented Investment Offensive in Latin America

While President Obama spars with Democratic critics over fast-track authority to promote free trade in China’s Pacific rim, the Chinese have unleashed an unprecedented investment offensive in South America, Uncle Sam’s erstwhile backyard.