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U.S. dairy group calls for improved enforcement measures during USMCA review

The National Milk Producers Federation says the USMCA review process needs to include refining the dispute process between trading partners.

Shawna Morris tells Brownfield, “There’s an opportunity to see what’s not actually working on the ground the way that it was supposed to in implementation, and some of the solutions to that could be enforcement dispute settlement cases.”

“Some of that may need to be ironing out where those shortfalls are in negotiations,” she says.

Morris says enforcement tools seemed to have worked during the biotech issues with Mexico, but says Canada was able to avoid penalties from their dairy dispute because of a technicality.

“Our goal is trying to iron out some of these problems about how the deal’s working in practice on our exports into Canada and Canada’s exports to the U.S. and other markets,” she says.

Morris says July 1 is not a hard deadline to finish negotiations, but all trading partners need to be at the table for constructive improvements.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer recently told the U.S. House Representatives Ways and Means Committee that Canadian officials have made no commitments to change their dairy trade practices.

Brownfield’s Larry Lee interviews Shawna Morris