Canada pressured to dump dairy supply management

AFP, MONTREAL: Canada is facing pressure to open up its protected dairy market to more US milk and cheeses in talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement that resumed Saturday in Ottawa.

US President Donald Trump has called Canada’s supply-managed dairy sector, which is not included in the current NAFTA, “a disgrace.”

The Canadian government effectively sets production quotas and the price of milk, which ends up costing consumers a bit more but provides farmers with a stable income.

The system has been in place since the 1970s, and has survived several attempts to quash it—as well as the prohibitive tariffs that limit foreign imports.

“Its compatibility with trade agreements is unclear, but to date neither the WTO nor NAFTA have been able to push Canada to dismantle it,” dairy experts Richard Ouellet and Erick Duchesne of Laval University in Quebec wrote recently.

Canada pressured to dump dairy supply management

AFP, MONTREAL: Canada is facing pressure to open up its protected dairy market to more US milk and cheeses in talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement that resumed Saturday in Ottawa. US President Donald Trump has called Canadas supply-managed dairy sector, which is not included in the current NAFTA, a disgrace. The Canadian government effectively sets production quotas and the price of milk, which ends up costing consumers a bit more but provides farmers with a stable income. The system has been in place since the 1970s, and has survived several attempts to quash itas well as the prohibitive tariffs that limit foreign imports. Its compatibility with trade agreements is unclear, but to date neither the WTO nor NAFTA have been able to push Canada to dismantle it, dairy experts Richard Ouellet and Erick Duchesne of Laval University in Quebec wrote recently.