Thursday, 23 January 2025 08:55

Editorial: O Canada

Written by  Staff Reporters

OPINION: The Canadian government's love affair with its lifestyle dairy farmers has got it into trouble once again.

This time the Agriculture Ministers of New Zealand, Australia and the US are being asked by their respective dairy processing organisations to lean heavily on Canada to stop it selling its heavily subsidised dairy products on the world market, a move which is distorting and reducing returns to honest dairy producing countries such as NZ.

This is a significant move and shows Canada that it now has some formidable opponents.

The Canadian dairy industry is small by our standards; its average herd size is in the 80s. But as they say, empty vessels make the most noise and Canadian dairy vessels make the most noise and Canadian dairy farmers have long done that and captured the ear of successive politically fragile governments, to the extent that when the cow bells ring, the government goes head over heels to help.

This sort of behaviour is not limited to Canada. We have seen it in Europe too where farmers hold considerable political power.

However, Canada has always professed to be a free trader and signed up to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) which requires it to do just that. The problem is that when Canada signed up to the CPTPP they were being blatantly dishonest as it seems they were never going to stop indulging their lifestyle dairy farmers.

In doing this, Canada has gone from being a respected free trader and supporter of rules-based trade to being a born-again rogue protectionist colony -  a very unstatesman-like action.

In theory, NZ and Canada should be friends and to be fair on most issues we are and will remain so. But their antiquated return to protectionism continues to sour that relationship.

More like this

Editorial: Drought dilemma

OPINION: As of last Thursday, five regions – Taranaki, Northland, Waikato, Horizons and Marlborough-Tasman – had been declared medium-scale adverse events.

O Canada

OPINION: Donald Trump's focus on Canada is causing concern for the country’s dairy farmers.

Editorial: GMO furore

OPINION: Submissions on the Government's contentious Gene Technology Bill have closed.

Featured

Pāmu farm opens gate to urban visitors

For many urban New Zealanders, stepping into Pāmu’s Pinta dairy farm near Taupo last month was the first time they had had the chance to experience farm life up close.

Afimilk appoints new general manager

Afimilk, a global dairy farm management solutions provider, has appointed Justin Miller as the new general manager for New Zealand and Australia.

National

Machinery & Products

Gong for NH dealers

New Holland dealers from around Australia and New Zealand came together last month for the Dealer of the Year Awards,…

A true Kiwi ingenuity

The King Cobra raingun continues to have a huge following in the New Zealand market and is also exported to…

Data crucial to managing water

Watermetrics was formed as a water data collector and currently supplies and services modern technology such as flow meters, soil…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Dairy power

OPINION: The good times felt across the dairy sector weren't lost at last week's Beef + Lamb NZ annual meeting.

Another win

OPINION: Feds Southland 'pres' Jason Herrick and colleagues who continue the good fight against bureaucratic madness on behalf of farmers,…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter