Agricultural Chemical Prices in Canada and the United States: A Case Study of Alberta and Montana

Abstract

Differences in retail prices for similar or identical agricultural chemicals have been a source of controversy in the Prairie Provinces of Canada and the Northern Great Plains States of the United States since the mid-1990s. Such differences may exist because of differing pesticide regulations between the United States and Canada. Different regulations may inhibit trade between the two regions and isolate markets from one another. If this is the case, then regulatory harmonization that allows Canadian and U.S. agricultural producers to purchase agricultural chemicals in Canada or the United States would generally lead to harmonization of agricultural chemical prices.