Dairy Industry Leaders, Lawmakers Call for Trump to Take Action on Canada's Dairy Import Constraints
The leaders of four high-powered dairy groups and four Minnesota congressional lawmakers urged President Donald Trump to take action to loosen Canadian price constraints harming U.S. milk exports. National Milk Producers Federation CEO Jim Mulhern, U.S. Dairy Export Council CEO Tom Vilsack, International Dairy Foods Association CEO Michael Dykes and National Association of State Departments of Agriculture CEO Barbara Glenn wrote a letter (here) to Trump urging him to use the “full range of tools” to persuade Canada to open its dairy market to U.S. exports, address the Canadian dairy market situation and its “chronic use of nontariff tools” early in NAFTA renegotiations, and urge Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to reopen his country's market to ultra-filtered milk imports from the U.S. Copied on the letter were several of Trump's advisers and Cabinet members, as well as several key members of Congress. If the suggested approaches don’t bring freer and fairer bilateral trade, the U.S. should bring Canada’s actions with regard to dairy to the attention of the World Trade Organization, the executives wrote.
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On the congressional side, Minnesota Democratic Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar and Reps. Collin Peterson and Tim Walz in another letter (here) to Trump said Grassland Dairy Products has canceled several dairy contracts in Minnesota because of declining sales to Canada, spurred by regulations that took effect in February in most provinces. The lawmakers called on the Trump administration to negotiate with the Canadian government an immediate hold on the "Class 7 National Ingredients Strategy" and Ontario's "Class 6 pricing program," and to investigate whether they violate bilateral trade commitments. "If this new Canadian policy to discourage its processors from using imported ultra-filtered milk is allowed to continue, it will continue to depress low prices, intensify oversupply, and threaten multi-generational Minnesota dairy farms," the lawmakers said, adding that many Minnesota milk producers have been notified that Canada will no longer accept their milk supply starting May 1.