April 20, 2017

Canada blames US for its dairy sector 'woes'

Canada's dairy sector has expressed confidence the Canadian government, whose new pricing policy is under attack by the US dairy industry, would "defend and protect" it and the economy, Bloomberg reported.

The Dairy Farmers of Canada, which represents 12,000 farms, blamed oversupply of milk for the situation.

The US wants a halt to the new pricing policy, which it claimed would block US products, specifically ultra-filtered milk.

On Tuesday US President Donald Trump promised to help the dairy farmers, who had written him, asking that he direct US agencies to "examine a full range of tools that could be used immediately to impress upon Canada in a concrete way the importance of dependable two-way trade".

"We're going to call Canada and we're going to say 'What happened?"' Trump was quoted as saying during an appearance at a Snap-On Tool plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin. "We're going to get the solution."

Trump also called NAFTA a "complete and total disaster" for the US.

"We're going to make some very big changes," he said. "We're going to get rid of NAFTA once and for all."

According to the Bloomberg report, Canada's ambassador to the US sent a letter to the governors of New York and Wisconsin after Trump's comments, saying the trade balance in dairy between the two nations favored America by a ratio of about five to one.

"Canada doesn't accept the contention that Canada's dairy policies are the cause of financial loss for dairy farmers in the United States," wrote ambassador David MacNaughton. He also wrote that "technical barriers" made the US more protectionist than Canada and that his nation wasn't a cause of the global oversupply that has hurt American farmers.