The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office is once again pressuring Canada to open market access to U.S. dairy products as agreed upon in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai established the second U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement dispute panel regarding access to Canada’s dairy market.

“We’re pleased USTR continues to put pressure on Canada to live up to its commitments under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. America’s hardworking dairy farmers deserve the opportunity to sell their products to Canada, but they have run into persistent roadblocks,” American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) President Zippy Duvall said. “We appreciate Trade Representative Tai for her work to enforce the tariff-quota provisions of the trade agreement. We value Canada as a trading partner, but its leaders must honor the agreement to ensure Canada’s families have choices at the supermarket, and America’s farm families have fair access to markets.”

The dispute stems from Canada’s application of tariff rate quotas for dairy products.

“USTR is saying that these actions by Canada have not followed the initial decision in a case that was won by the U.S. in December of 2021 to try to enforce the measures in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement that granted increased access into the Canadian market for U.S. dairy producers. So, this is a follow up to that initial decision,” AFBF Senior Government Affairs Director Dave Salmonsen said.

Tariff rate quotas allow a country to export products without facing a full tariff.

“These are measures put in trade agreements where a country says we’ll allow a certain amount of product in, but we won’t apply our full tariff. And this was negotiated in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and the U.S. is saying that our dairy producers have not gotten that access. Canada has not followed the agreements that they made in the USMCA,” Salmonsen said.

The process will likely take six to eight months, according to Salmonsen, who said a positive outcome for the U.S. would boost dairy exports to Canada.

“If U.S. wins the case again and Canada actually implements the regulations the way the agreement says they should, it would add about over $250 million or more worth of U.S. dairy products going into Canada,” he said. “Currently we export about 550 to $600 million of dairy products to Canada, so this will be a significant increase and would set the stage for further growth.”