U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue conducted a series of meetings with Canadian officials on June 5. Among other issues, Perdue raised the topic of U.S.-produced ultra-filtered milk and Canadian dairy ingredient pricing policy that has been a point of disagreement between the two countries.

Natzke dave
Editor / Progressive Dairy

The meetings included Canadian Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay and current Premier of Ontario Kathleen Wynne. Perdue said the meetings were not designed to begin renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but rather to identify the issues of concern.

“It’s not our purpose to try to manage or try to get involved in their internal supply management regarding the dairy industry,” Perdue said. “The ultra-filtered milk was not included in NAFTA. And I made it very clear that the Class 7 designation we felt was an unfair undercutting of the U.S. industry that grew up south of the U.S.-Canada border. It cut these producers and this industry out of shipping the ultra-filtered milk into their cheese industry, which was in demand in Canada. I also said, if you want to manage your dairy supply with supply management, that’s fine. You just need to manage it and not overproduce to create a glut of milk solids on the world market that’s being dumped at unfair prices.”

“While we didn’t try to negotiate back and forth, I think it was clearly understood that we consider all options on the table and we’ll pursue them in the best interests of U.S. producers,” Perdue concluded.

On May 18, the Trump Administration formally notified Congress of its intent to renegotiate NAFTA. The notification triggers a 90-day period before negotiations with Canada and Mexico can begin, as stipulated by the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015. As part of this process, the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is soliciting public comments to identify negotiating priorities. The Federal Register notice comment period is open through June 12, followed by a public hearing on June 27. IDFA will be actively participating in the entire renegotiation process, starting with working with its members to develop comments.

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Read: UF milk fighting FDA label, Canadian border barriers end mark

Dave Natzke