Canada Undermines U.S. Dairy Provisions of USMCA

Jun 18, 2020

By Mark O'Keefe

The new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) goes into effect on July 1 and Canada is already undermining terms of the deal by limiting U.S. access to a Canadian dairy market that remains tightly controlled.

Canada on Tuesday released details of tariff-rate quotas (TRQ) that are supposed to give U.S. dairy suppliers more access to the Canadian market under agreed-upon terms of USMCA. In reality, Canada's new TRQs discourage U.S. dairy retail products and high-value food service from entering Canada.

In a Wednesday news release, the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) sharply criticized Canada's allocation of its tariff-rate quotas (TRQ).

"Canada's administration of previous TRQs under existing free trade agreements gave the U.S. dairy industry ample cause for concern, which has unfortunately been confirmed by the announced TRQ allocations," said Tom Vilsack, president and CEO of USDEC. "Canada's actions place the U.S. dairy industry at a disadvantage by discouraging utilization of the full use of the TRQs and limiting the market access granted by USMCA."

USMCA contains important provisions to the U.S. dairy industry that are supposed to facilitate the smooth flow of U.S. dairy products throughout North America at a time of critical need and economic uncertainty.

However, Canada has announced the distribution of the TRQs in such a way as to discourage high-value food service or retail products from entering its domestic market.

USDEC and NMPF have repeatedly warned that the full benefits of USMCA will require careful monitoring and stringent enforcement of Canada's USMCA commitments.

For example, in a January interview with RFD-TV captured in a tweet below, Vilsack cautioned that ratification of USMCA is not enough. He said USDEC will closely monitor the dairy details of implementation to ensure USMCA delivers as promised.

"We are keeping a wary eye on our Canadian friends," Vilsack told RFD-TV in January, "because they do, from time to time, reinterpret agreements, and cause the market not to be as open as we'd like it to be."

Click here to see more...

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.