PEMBINA, N.D. (AP) -- Farmers protesting Canadian trade policies blocked highways and halted Canadian trucks Sunday along the U.S.-Canada border.
About a dozen Canadian trucks were stopped at three North Dakota sites, said Col. Jim Hughes, commander of the state Highway Patrol. Farmers also protested at the border at Sweetgrass, Mont.Farmers are demanding a moratorium on Canadian grain imports until domestic grain prices rise above the cost of production.
"We think that's how we get them back to the bargaining table," said Curt Trulson, one of about 50 farmers protesting on the icy interstate at Pembina.
Deanna Allen, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Wheat Board, which sells and exports all grain grown in western Canada, said the protests have almost no impact since most of their U.S.-bound wheat and barley is shipped by rail.
The rallies came two days after U.S. and Canadian negotiators reached an agreement to lower trade barriers between the two nations.
The agreement calls for stepped-up monitoring of Canada's wheat sales and lower barriers on American grain and livestock moving north. It does not place limits on imports of Canadian grain and livestock, as many U.S. producers have demanded.
"They just gave us a lot of lip service," Trulson said. "If they had come up with something substantial, we would have went home and we would have said we didn't need to do this today."