Bipartisan Letter Asks Administration to Press Canada on Dairy Market Access
Two Democrats and two Republicans in the Senate asked the administration to press Canada on changing how it administers tariff rate quotas for U.S. dairy exports as it approaches a renegotiation.
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Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Roger Marshall, R-Kan., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, signed the letter.
"While the changes in USMCA were expected to be a limited but welcome improvement, Canada is not fulfilling their commitments under this trade agreement.
"Canada continues to manipulate access to its dairy market by reserving the vast majority of shares of their Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQs) for Canadian processors, causing fill rates to remain low across several dairy product categories, including whey powder, milk powder, and cheese for industrial use," they wrote. "Meanwhile, other supply chain actors like retailers are entirely excluded from TRQ access while others such as distributors are left with only limited quantities."
The USDA said that industrial cheese TRQs were 81% filled last year.
"Another [USMCA] reform that Canada appears to be skirting are rules put in place to regulate exports of dairy protein. By exploiting a loophole, Canada exports excessive quantities of dairy protein at an artificially low price, negatively impacting global markets the United States relies on," the senators wrote.
USDA projected in October last year that Canada would remain within the export limits it agreed to for both skim milk powder and milk protein concentrates, but that it is focusing on higher-protein isolates, which are not covered by the agreement, presumably the loophole the senators complained about.