Morning Ag Clips logo
  • Subscribe ❯
  • PORTAL ❯
  • LOGIN ❯
  • By Keyword
  • By topic
  • By state
  • Home
  • Events
  • Jobs
  • Store
  • Advertise
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Subscribe to our
    daily email
    ❯
  • Portal Registration❯
  • Login❯
  • policy
  • tractors & machinery
  • education
  • conservation
  • webinars
  • business
  • dairy
  • cattle
  • poultry
  • swine
  • corn
  • soybeans
  • organic
  • specialty crops
  • Alabama
  • Alaska
  • Arizona
  • Arkansas
  • California
  • Colorado
  • Connecticut
  • Delaware
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Hawaii
  • Idaho
  • Illinois
  • Indiana
  • Iowa
  • Kansas
  • Kentucky
  • Louisiana
  • Maine
  • Maryland
  • Massachusetts
  • Michigan
  • Minnesota
  • Mississippi
  • Missouri
  • Montana
  • Nebraska
  • Nevada
  • New Hampshire
  • New Jersey
  • New Mexico
  • New York
  • North Carolina
  • North Dakota
  • Ohio
  • Oklahoma
  • Oregon
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
  • South Carolina
  • South Dakota
  • Tennessee
  • Texas
  • Utah
  • Vermont
  • Virginia
  • Washington
  • West Virginia
  • Wisconsin
  • Wyoming

Morning Ag Clips

  • By Keyword
  • By topic
  • By state
  • policy
  • tractors & machinery
  • education
  • conservation
  • webinars
  • business
  • dairy
  • cattle
  • poultry
  • swine
  • corn
  • soybeans
  • organic
  • specialty crops
  • Home
  • Events
  • Jobs
  • Store
  • Advertise
Home » U.S. amping up dispute with Canada over dairy products
dairy international trade
TRADE DISPUTE ...

U.S. amping up dispute with Canada over dairy products

U.S. amping up dispute with Canada over allowed exports of American dairy products

PUBLISHED ON May 25, 2021

"A top priority for the Biden-Harris administration is fully enforcing the USMCA and ensuring that it benefits American workers," U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement. (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Flickr/Creative Commons)

WASHINGTON — The United States is ramping up its dispute with Canada over the sale of American dairy products north of the border — the first significant new trade squabble between the two countries of the post-NAFTA era.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai formally requested a dispute settlement panel Tuesday to examine allegations from American producers that Canada is denying them fair access to the Canadian market.

The request marks a significant escalation of American complaints about the way Canada is allocating access to its supply-managed dairy market under NAFTA’s successor, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

“A top priority for the Biden-Harris administration is fully enforcing the USMCA and ensuring that it benefits American workers,” Tai said in a statement.

“Launching the first panel request under the agreement will ensure our dairy industry and its workers can seize new opportunities under the USMCA to market and sell U.S. products to Canadian consumers.”

At the heart of the dispute is how Canada has distributed its tariff-rate quotas — the quantities of certain dairy products like milks, cheeses, powders, yogurt and even ice cream — that can be imported at lower duty levels.

U.S. trade officials and dairy industry advocates say a large share of those quotas have been allocated to processors rather than producers, effectively denying U.S. farmers their fair share of the supply-managed Canadian market.

That is expressly forbidden under the text of the agreement, USTR officials told a background briefing Tuesday.

“What Canada is doing is essentially dividing up the (quotas) … into different pools and saying, ‘Well, here’s a pool that only processors can access,'” said one official, who cannot be identified under the terms of the briefing.

“We read the agreement — and we think it’s pretty plain on its face — that that’s not permitted. Canada disagrees, and so we’re going to argue that out before a panel.”

The two sides held consultations on the issue late last year as an initial first step, “but did not resolve the dispute,” the USTR said in a news release Tuesday.

Canadian officials have been insisting for months that the allocations are perfectly in keeping with Canada’s commitments under the trade agreement, which took effect last July.

International Trade Minister Mary Ng said Canada is “disappointed” in the USTR’s decision, and that the quota allocations are well within the bounds of the agreement, known north of the border as CUSMA or the “new NAFTA.”

“Under CUSMA, Canada agreed to provide some additional market access to the United States for dairy while successfully defending our supply management system and dairy industry,” Ng said in a statement.

“We are confident that our policies are in full compliance with our CUSMA TRQ obligations, and we will vigorously defend our position during the dispute settlement process.”

The request for a panel puts dairy squarely alongside the ongoing softwood lumber dispute as two of the most prominent trade-related sore spots in the Canada-U.S. relationship.

But even healthy relationships have disagreements, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier Tuesday.

“We will always defend supply management and our dairy producers, amongst others. We will always stand up for our forestry workers in the industry across the country,” Trudeau said.

“We will continue — as we did successfully in the previous administration — to stand up to defend Canadian interests and values wherever necessary.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 25, 2021.

–James McCarten The Canadian Press

For more articles concerning the dairy industry, click here.

RECOMMENDED ARTICLES

U.S. initiates 2nd USMCA dispute on Canadian dairy TRQ policies
May 31, 2022

WASHINGTON ­– United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai today announced that the United States is, for the second time, requesting dispute settlement consultations with Canada under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to address dairy restrictions by Canada that are contrary to its USMCA commitments. Specifically, the United States is challenging Canada’s dairy tariff-rate quota (TRQ) […]

Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Edge supports second trade dispute with Canada
May 26, 2022

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative, one of the largest dairy co-ops in the country, has reiterated its support for U.S. trade officials who are doubling down on challenging the Canadian government over its allocation of tariff-rate quotas for dairy products. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced that the U.S. is triggering a second […]

The 2018 PDPW Food & Policy Summit presented by The Professional Dairy Producers® (PDPW) will provide an opportunity for farmers, ag and food industry professionals and policy-makers to come together to understand and discuss the complex dynamics that impact everything from global demand to consumer preferences for dairy products. (Courtesy of PDPW)
WI groups pleased with USMCA dairy decision
January 06, 2022

MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association (WCMA) lauded the decision of an independent panel affirming that Canada did not uphold its obligation under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USCMA) to fairly administer tariff rate quotas on imported U.S. dairy products. The dispute was brought by the U.S. on May 25, 2021, and the panel […]

USTR: US prevails in USMCA dispute on Canadian dairy restrictions
January 05, 2022

WASHINGTON — United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai has announced that the United States has prevailed in the first dispute settlement panel proceeding ever brought under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).  A USMCA panel agreed with the United States that Canada is breaching its USMCA commitments by reserving most of the in-quota quantity in its […]

U.S. triumphs in USMCA dispute with Canada over dairy market access
January 05, 2022

ARLINGTON, Va. — The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) celebrated a landmark decision published today which found Canada is improperly restricting access to its market for U.S. dairy products in violation of its U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) commitments. The case is the first of any kind brought […]

Spread the word

Browse More Clips

National Pork Producers Council seeks USDA remedy

Food scraps get a bold new life

Primary Sidebar

MORE

NATIONAL CLIPS

National FFA Organization selected to participate in the Advancing Racial Equity Community of Practice initiative
January 27, 2023
Six reasons to bring millets to the market!
January 27, 2023
Statement from Agriculture Secretary on departure of Deputy Secretary Jewel Bronaugh
January 26, 2023
76th Annual Rangelands Meeting
January 26, 2023
99 Counties - Farming for Good Health!
January 26, 2023
  • Trending
  • Latest

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE...

Six reasons to bring millets to the market!
January 27, 2023
Kentucky Department of Agriculture
Kentucky Ag Development Board approves projects
January 26, 2023
Purdue launches new AI-based global forest mapping project
January 26, 2023
U.S. Championship Cheese Contest features 2,249 entries
January 26, 2023
dairy cows (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Public Domain)
Nominations open for New York Dairy Promotion Order Advisory Board
January 26, 2023

Footer

MORNING AG CLIPS

  • Contact Us
  • Sponsors
  • About Us
  • Advertise with Us
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service

CONNECT WITH US

  • Like Us on Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

TRACK YOUR TRADE

  • Markets & Economy
  • Cattle Updates
  • Dairy News
  • Policy & Politics
  • Corn Alerts

QUICK LINKS

  • Account
  • Portal Membership
  • Just Me, Kate
  • Farmhouse Communication

Get the MAC App Today!

Get it on Google Play
Download on the App Store

© 2023 Morning Ag Clips, LLC. All Rights Reserved.