Canada has cut the mustard – from the list of imports from the United States that face a 10 per cent tariff that kicked in on July 1.
Canadian farmers export a significant percentage of their mustard-seed harvests to U.S. processors, so they asked that mustard be dropped from the list.
Ketchup remains, leaving French’s in a stronger position because it not only buys Ontario-grown and processed tomato paste, but also packages its ketchup in a new plant in the Toronto region.
Heinz closed its ketchup plant in Leamington and some managers led a team that purchased it and are now supplying French’s.
"The people who would be hurting as much as anyone in all of this (mustard tariff) would have been the Canadian farmers," said Dave Macfarlane, a board member with the Canadian Special Crops Association.
"We were quite relieved to see that it came off the list and that the government listened to our logic."
