U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, applauded a victory by the United States in a dispute over Canada’s barriers to American dairy products.
Under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a dispute resolution panel found that Canada’s use of tariff rate quotas to unfairly restrict U.S. dairy products is inconsistent with its USMCA obligations.
“For the reasons set forth above, the Panel finds that Canada’s practice of reserving TRQ (tariff rate quota) pools exclusively for the use of processors is inconsistent with Canada’s commitment in Article 3.A.2.11(b) of the Treaty not to ‘limit access to an allocation to processors,’” the decision read.
As a result of this action, U.S. dairy producers and workers will have an increased ability to sell their products in the Canadian market.
“The United States’ win today against Canadian trade barriers for U.S. dairy products proves that trade done right can deliver real results for our farmers and workers,” Wyden said. “Despite agreeing to open its market to a host of American dairy products in the USMCA, Canada denied our farmers these benefits. USTR’s (U. S. Trade Representative) monitoring of USMCA implementation identified this failure and held Canada to its promise. Democrats insisted on strong enforcement in this deal, so I am particularly pleased USTR was able to take effective action to ensure that our farmers received what we bargained for in USMCA.”