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Doud says Canadian dairy market access fix needed

A dairy leader who was involved in the last USMCA trade negotiations says there are issues to resolve when the U.S, Canada, and Mexico return to the bargaining table.

National Milk Producers Federation CEO Gregg Doud was the USTR’s chief agriculture negotiator during the first Trump administration.  He tells Brownfield Canada is the second-best dairy market for U.S. exports after Mexico, but market access challenges remain because of how Canada manages its tariff rate quota system. “I know exactly what section of the agreement we’re talking about. I know exactly what we debated and discussed when we negotiated it. Canada hasn’t implemented it. We took it to the first ever dispute of the USMCA.”

Doud says the way Canada allocates its tariff rate quotas was not the intent of the USMCA agreement. “This is something that we’ve definitely got to fix when we sit down here in the next few months and renegotiate USMCA and get it updated. This has to be fixed because you’re not allowed to allocate the TRQ to an entity that you know absolutely will not use it.”

Doud says Canadian officials have done whatever they can to protect their closed dairy market system.

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is scheduled for review and possible renewal in July of 2026.