Canada and the United Kingdom have hammered out a post-Brexit trade deal.
Dairy Farmers of Canada Vice-President David Wiens talked about how will this impact Canada's dairy industry.
"We were very concerned that dairy might be implicated in that but we are pleased to see that the government has excluded dairy imports in that particular trade agreement. Now we know that it's an interim agreement that is renewed in three years. That gives them time to negotiate."
Wiens commented on dairy products that are coming into Canada from the United Kingdom.
"Part of it was that the UK had a portion of what was given to the EU, while they were within the [European] Union. So then it would have been up to the UK to negotiate something with the EU in terms of whatever they had in that trade agreement with Canada and other agreements for that matter. My understanding is that they have not had those kind of negotiations or at least they haven't finalized any such negotiations. If they would take their portion of what was agreed to in the CETA (Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement), that would be one thing, but they haven't done that. The Canadian government hasn't opened up any additional market access for the UK, anything that's been given beyond the CETA agreement."
Wiens says under the CETA agreement, in the last three years, the import level has been as high as 99 per cent of what was allowed (5.3 million kilograms of cheese that's permitted under that agreement).
He notes some of the cheese processors in Canada have really struggled as a result.
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