U.S. trade rep says access to Canada’s dairy market key to CUSMA review

Canada will have to increase access to the United States when it comes to dairy products as part of a renegotiated U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told members of the U.S. Congress on Thursday that concerns related to dairy market access in Canada and its exports of certain dairy products are part of a “non-exhaustive” list of issues that need to be addressed as part of the six-year joint review of the trade agreement.

Greer said that while several stakeholders expressed support and explicitly called for the agreement to be extended, “virtually all stakeholders also called for some sort of improvement to the Agreement.”

Greer said others supported an extension if certain improvements were made, and he cited one stakeholder group that said it should not be renewed without addressing concerns “related to Canada’s dairy policies.”

“For its part, Canada insists on maintaining its Online Streaming Act, a law that discriminates against U.S. tech and media firms, as well as a number of other measures that restrict digital services trade,” Greer said in a transcript of the speech. “Canada also maintains policies that unfairly restrict market access for U.S. dairy products.”

Earlier this year, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed Canada imposes 300 per cent tariffs on many U.S. dairy products, a claim that is not true. While there are tariffs that approach those levels in the current free trade agreement, they only kick in after U.S. exports exceed set quotas, which has never happened.

Aside from dairy and digital, other issues raised were provincial bans on U.S. alcohol distribution, discriminatory procurement measures in Ontario, Quebec and B.C., complicated customs registration for Canadian recipients of U.S. exports, and Alberta’s unfair treatment of electrical power distribution providers in Montana.

Greer also mentioned another goal of the renegotiation was to strengthen the rules of origin for non-automotive industrial goods to ensure that the benefits of trade in those products flow substantially to all three countries.