USMCA and Dairy: Canadian Government Spin vs Fact

Spin

Fact

"It's a good day for Canada."

This is a bad outcome for dairy farmers and the whole dairy sector. The Government has conceded access to our domestic market to the US, affecting our ability to produce Canadian milk. By doing so, it is slowly bleeding Canada's dairy sector.

"We will defend supply management"

For the US, this was never about supply management.  U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said months ago "It's not our purpose to try to manage or try to get involved in their internal supply management regarding the dairy industry….I made it very clear that the Class 7 designation we felt was an unfair undercutting of the U.S. industry that grew up south of the U.S.-Canada border."

The Canadian government concessions equate to death by a thousand cuts.

"We look forward to ultimately signing a deal as long as it's good for Canada and good for middle class Canadians".

The 220,000 Canadian families who depend on dairy for their livelihood (on farms, in processing plants and related jobs) feel they were used as a bargaining chip to conclude this agreement.

"No NAFTA deal is better than a bad NAFTA deal."

This deal not only gives more access to the Canadian dairy market, while limiting our ability to produce and export home-grown dairy products; this deal lets the Americans dictate our dairy policies. Fairer trade is about win-win results.  If our government fought for a good deal for Canadian industry, it wasn't dairy.