The PEI Potato Board is pleased that the meeting between US Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack, Canadian Minister of Agriculture Bibeau and Canadian Minister of Veterans Affairs MacAulay today was constructive.

From the beginning, we have been confident in our science and in the internationally accepted risk mitigation measures in place to enable the trade in our potatoes.

We intend to work together to hold, both Canada and the United States accountable to the timelines that have been laid out. Every day is important, and we will be very focused on meeting those timelines, particularly as we are only weeks away from our next planting season.

This is a good first step, it is not a deal done and we do know there is still a lot of work to be done.

We thank Ministers Bibeau and MacAulay for travelling to Washington for this very important meeting, and we look forward to the productive work in the days ahead