Global Dairy - Trade deals hinder Canadians

GLOBAL DAIRY CANADA

Trade deals hinder Canadian dairy farmers

Eager to please US negotiators, the Canadian government signed trade agreements that allow more dairy imports and remove Canadian farmers’ right to manage their products, as Anne Cote explains.

Canadian dairyfarmers are Trade Agreement (CETA) followed in gambling that their newest 2019 and the most contentious of the marketing initiative, the three, CUSMA followed in 2020. All three Blue Cow logo, will persuade aggressively attacked Canada’s supply Canadians to support Canadian dairy and management system. leave imports on the store shelves. Canadian producers went to work to

The result of the most recent trade protect that system. They put aside the talks between Canada, Mexico and the differences that had kept the industry United States is the new Canada-United divided into east and west sectors, States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), which developed a consumer education came into force on July 1, 2020, replacing campaign, and presented a united front the former North American Free Trade as they lobbied the federal government to Agreement. protect their supply management system

CUSMA left a sour taste in the mouths as it stood. of many of Canada’s dairy producers. Still, the federal government in It raises the quantity of milk and milk Canada, keen on mollifying potential products the US is allowed to import into trade partners, appeared ready to legislate Canada, and, according to some, an end to supply management. gives the US too much leeway Although they weren’t successful in defining milk and milkin dismantling the system, they based products, taking away managed to undermine it by Canadian producers’ right to allowing increased imports. manage their own product. The first bite took a toll on

For decades Canadian cheese sales. Through CETA, dairy producers have worked Canada gave 28 European under a supply management Anne Cote countries an opportunity to ship system, which, for the most part, thousands of pounds of additional satisfied the needs of the domestic market. cheese into Canada. Every sale of Occasionally domestic demand would imported cheese was a loss for Canadian increase sharply as it did for butter a few cheese. years ago. When Canadian producers The 11,000 Canadian producers were couldn’t meet the demand, butter was furious. But, being law-abiding folks, they imported. Leading export countries like rolled up their sleeves and pulled together the US began to view Canada as a lucrative to develop a marketing campaign aimed market for their excess milk products at educating Canadian consumers about if only the supply management system the dependability and quality of Canadian could be eliminated. products. The first tangible result was the

Trade negotiators involved in the “little blue cow” logo that now adorns Comprehensive and Progressive Transalmost every Canadian dairy product. Pacific Partnership (CPTPP, 2018) were However, they lost ground to CUSMA. the first to attempt to convince Canada The US dictated the elimination of two to scrap the supply management system Canadian milk classifications and allowed for dairy, poultry and eggs and open the the import of US diafiltered, or double Canadian market to imports. processed, milk into Canada.

The Comprehensive Economic and The fight isn’t over. Initial data indicates

Safe and warm inside: Calves at Bles-Wold Dairy Inc near Red Deer, Alberta, Canada.

consumers now actively look for the Blue Cow logo when buying dairy products because they are interested in where their products originate and like the idea of supporting Canadian milk producers.

David Weins, Vice President of Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC), the national policy and lobbying group, and a staunch proponent of supply management, continues to tell dairy producers that, despite the setbacks in recent trade agreements, the Canadian dairy industry has a vision for the future and that future includes supply management.

“We won’t let CUSMA bring us down... Trump may have won this battle but the war’s not over,” Weins says.

Anne Cote is a new contributor to the Dairy Exporter, writing a regular Global Dairy column on the state of dairy in Canada and USA. Based in Canada, she has been a journalist since 2004, branching out into agriculture both provincially and nationally in 2006. She has been primarily involved in covering dairy in her home province of Manitoba, Canada and has travelled extensively visiting farms in the U.S., Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand and South Africa as well as throughout Canada.