The Madison-based FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative is applauding the announcement made by the Biden Administration to initiate a second dispute panel over Canada's most recent actions to delay fulfilling its obligations under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
FarmFirst General Manager Jeff Lyon says he's surprised but disappointed in the Canadian government's unwillingness to fulfill it obligations.
"Canada's tightly regulated and expensive milk production system is not an excuse for Canadian trade officials to utilize delay tactics and not comply with the trade provisions," Lyon said. "Its actions reinforce the notion that it is not interested in being a reliable trading partner."
The first dispute settlement against Canada regarding USMCA was initiated in 2021; and in January, the dispute panel found Canada to be non-compliant with their dairy TRQ commitments under the USMCA. However, Canada has been unwilling to amend their dairy trade-distorting practices.
Last week, Canada published its revised USMCA dairy TRQ approach, which has raised new concerns and still fails to address its USMCA obligations.
The initial dispute settlement panel found that across more than a dozen categories of dairy products in USMCA, 85 to 100 percent of the lower tariff quota were reserved for Canadian processors, putting Canada in breach of its USMCA commitments.
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