Letโs talk about the elephant (or the dairy cow?) in the room: Supply management.
Trump keeps bringing up Canadaโs supply-managed dairy industry, saying that Canadaโs tariff rates on U.S. dairy are way too steep. But high tariff rates only apply if exports exceed specific quotas.
Heโs putting pressure on Canadian officials to do something about supply management, which the dairy industry argues protects Canadian farmers. Others say itโs an archaic system that stifles competition and raises prices for consumers.
The industryโs main lobby reminded everyone today in a statement that the government has expressed support for supply management in the past.
“The prime minister has restated this commitment repeatedly, and the government reaffirmed its support in the throne speech and with the passage of C-202,โ wrote the Dairy Farmers of Canada.
Thatโs a law that parliament recently passed to take supply management off the trade negotiation table โ but not everyone is happy about that. Some are concerned it backs Canada against the wall in trade talks.
Kelly Ann Shaw, a former senior White House trade adviser, said she’s not surprised that Trump keeps re-upping supply management as an issue.
She described the Trump administrationโs thinking on this: “We’re gearing up to renegotiate this deal, so we’re identifying things where we don’t feel like we’re being treated well.”
