The move adds to a simmering trade dispute between Canadian and American milk producers: the US dairy lobby is accusing Canada of “systemic disregard” of its trade obligations, while the Canadian industry accuses its American rival of “scapegoating”.
Trump’s decision to call out Canada has put that country’s dairy sector on notice that they are in America’s fair-trade sights.
His comments – among his strongest anti-Canadian rhetoric – came during an event at a Wisconsin dairy factory last month, where he unveiled his ‘Buy American - Hire American’ executive order.
He took aim at the Canadian dairy industry’s coveted supply-management system, long a sacred political cow in Canada.
Trump received a letter last month from four US dairy industry groups: National Milk Producers Federation, US Dairy Export Council, International Dairy Foods Association and the National Association of State
Departments of Agriculture, accusing Canada of violating its trade commitments to the US.
“Time and again Canada has demonstrated its disregard of its dairy commitments to the United States – hampering America’s exports to Canada – while pursuing ways to use its government-controlled system to unfairly dump greater Canadian exports in global markets,” the letter said.
Dairy Farmers of Canada, which has previously denounced the complaints as “falsehoods and half-truths,” said it was confident its government would continue to defend the dairy industry.
In a blog posting earlier this month, Dairy Farmers of Canada spokeswoman Isabelle Bouchard said Canada has done nothing to block US imports and that the predicament is the result of an “over-saturated” market that has led to lower prices.
“By contrast, in Canada, supply management (literally matching supply with demand) avoids overproduction and reduces the impact of devastating market fluctuations such as those the US is currently experiencing,” she wrote. “It is wrong to use Canada as a scapegoat for the situation in the United States.”
Trump has blamed Canada for “some very unfair things that have happened to our dairy farmers and others”.
However, Francois Dumontier, a spokesman for Les Producteurs de lait du Quebec, said imports of US milk products have increased since 1993 and now account for three-quarters of milk products in Canada.
“So the Americans are not suffering from the current terms of NAFTA and existing trade agreements.”
