Dairy producers are pleased with the prime minister’s support
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Canada’s supply-managed dairy sector won’t be up for discussion during NAFTA negotiations, Prime Minister Trudeau said.
“Absolutely not. I have said and I will continue to say, both to Canadians and Americans, including directly to President Trump, that we are not going to get rid of supply management,” the prime minister said on CBC’s Island Morning yesterday.
“It is a system that works. It is a system that works for Canadians, it’s a system that works for our agricultural producers, our dairy farmers. This is something we will continue to protect.”
President Trump has targeted Canada’s dairy sector on numerous occasions since NAFTA renegotiations began last year. He has called supply management unfair and has pointed repeatedly to Canada’s high dairy import tariffs while trying to gain market access for U.S. producers faced with low milk prices and overproduction.
But Trudeau has remained firm on Canada’s position despite the American pressure and criticism from his political opponents.
Dairy farmers are pleased with the prime minister’s continued support of supply management.
“I think it’s great that he’s standing up for supply management and I hope he continues to do so,” Todd Arthur, a retired dairy producer from Middlesex County, told Farms.com today.
“Supply management is pivotal to the dairy industry because it puts us on an even playing field with some of the other commodities.”
Ending supply management could also cost the federal government millions of dollars.
Ottawa announced billions of dollars of funding for the supply-managed sector in October 2015 to offset dairy imports associated with the CPTPP and CETA trade agreements.
Abolishing the system would be even more costly, Arthur said.
“It would cost the country a ton of money and I don’t even know where they would get the funds for that,” he said.
Some dairy producers think the U.S. is targeting supply management to take the focus away from other items.
“Dairy is a small percentage of everything that makes up NAFTA when you consider things like steel, wood and cars,” Theo Elshof, a dairy producer from Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, told Farms.com today.
“The U.S. knows where the problems are but they choose to blame the lack of a NAFTA deal on supply management.”