U.S. Dairy Industry Continues To Have Concern With Canada’s TRQ

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai has initiated a trade dispute settlement case with the Canadian government over dairy tariff-rate quota, or TRQ. Senior Vice President of both the National Milk Producers Federation and the Dairy Export Council Shawna Morris says they’ve been asking for enforcement action since mid-2020.

“The main problem we pointed to in particular was the fact that Canada chose to give the lion’s share of the access rights under those dairy tariff-rate quotas to Canadian processors squeezing out access for others along the supply chain. We think that negatively impacts U.S. exporters.”

This is the first enforcement action filed under USMCA. Morris said Canada has long history of using policy or other tools to undermine access to their market.

“We’re hoping that the case will help ensure that wider access is provided to others across the supply chain in Canada. Ensuring that retailers, importers and other food distributors in Canada have more right to bring in the dairy products that Canada is obligated to accept under USMCA.” 

Morris said they want to improve the volume of opportunities, but also the value of those exports. ​

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