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Leader says Canada won’t budge on dairy supply management system
The agriculture counsellor with the Embassy of Canada, says although Canada remains committed to moving NAFTA forward in a timely matter, it will continue to defend its dairy supply management system.
Michael Hawkins says Canada’s stance hasn’t changed and the US dairy industry benefits from the current North American Free Trade Agreement.
“The US has duty-free access for a range of dairy products and Canada is the second largest export market and if there were to be a withdraw of NAFTA a lot of these benefits would go away,” he says.
The Canadian system has been criticized by US dairy groups but Hawkins says the current supply management system hasn’t prevented Canada from making other trade agreements and the countries should be able to move forward.
“We’ve concluded an agreement with Asia-Pacific members through the CPTPP, we’ve concluded an agreement with our European friends and all that time our supply management system has not prevented us from doing so.”
Hawkins says Canadian officials hope to move NAFTA forward quickly and find a solution that is a win-win-win for the US, Canada, and Mexico.
Audio: Michael Hawkins, Embassy of Canada
In trade, to gain something meaningful, like increased duty free dairy access, you need to give up something meaningful, like increased Canadian food exports gaining duty free sugar access.
Last time i publicly mentioned this, the US sugar growers told me I simply didn’t understand that they were unique.
Well, every single commodity likes to think it is unique, but at the end of the day, relative comparative advantage and your cost structures will help determine natural trade flows. Perhaps teh Gov’t will increase Over Quota Tariff exemptions for each of these. Much more politically saleable that actually lowering tariff lines.
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