Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay and Sonny Perdue, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture had their first face to face meeting yesterday in Toronto.

The two discussed priorities and underlined the importance of agricultural trade for both the Canadian and American economies as well as the competitiveness of the sector.

Canada and the U-S enjoy one of the closest trade relationships in the world.

This trade interdependence supports economic growth and millions of middle-class jobs on both sides of the border.

Canada and the U.S. are each other's largest trade partner for agriculture and food, with $62 billion of bilateral agriculture trade.

MacAulay says the Government of Canada is working closely with the U.S. Administration to strengthen what is already a robust Canada-U.S. bilateral partnership.