Canada won’t concede dairy market access in trade talks with the U.S.
Access to the Canadian dairy market won’t be part of trade talks with the U.S.
“We have been very clear from the beginning that supply management is not a subject of negotiations with the Americans,” Dominic LeBlanc, the federal minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade, told reporters in Ottawa on Oct. 1.
LeBlanc’s comments while standing alongside Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald came after a Globe and Mail report indicated Canada may consider changes to allow more American dairy across the border.
“The talks centre on changes to import restrictions and are part of broader conversations on supply management and U.S. trade,” the report says, citing two unnamed sources.
A piece of legislation passed earlier this year, however, could make that tricky.
Bill C-202, which received royal assent on June 26, prohibits Canada from including supply-managed goods in future trade deals.
“Parliament passed a law that we supported happily to make it clear that supply management is not a subject of negotiation in international trade agreements,” LeBlanc said.
Canada, Mexico, and the United States are scheduled to review CUSMA next July.
As part of the original deal which took effect in 2020, Canada committed to providing the U.S. with access to 3.5 per cent of its dairy market.
The U.S. has twice taken Canada to a CUSMA dispute settlement panel over this issue, claiming Canada isn’t fulfilling its dairy obligations.
In 2021, the panel ruled in favor of the U.S., resulting in Canada revising some of its tariff-rate quota allotments.
But when the U.S. brought up similar concerns in 2023, the panel decided Canada’s policies were in line with CUSMA.
Canada’s issues with trading partners over dairy stretch to New Zealand too.
In May 2022, New Zealand initiated a CPTPP dispute panel challenging Canada’s tariff rate quotas (TRQ).
The panel’s final report in September 2023 declared “Canada was not administering its dairy TRQs in a manner that allowed importers the opportunity to utilize them fully, and that Canada was impermissibly limiting access to TRQ quota to its domestic dairy processors.”
On July 18, 2025, Canada and New Zealand announced they reached a “mutually satisfactory solution” to the dispute, with Canada changing how it administers dairy TRQs under the CPTPP.