Scrapping dairy management system 'unacceptable,' Canadian diplomat says

Canadian Deputy Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman said that scrapping the nation's dairy supply-management system — a proposal the U.S. made in the NAFTA renegotiation — is "unacceptable." Canada is America's "second-largest export market for dairy," Hillman pointed out. Despite that robust cross-border business, many in the U.S. think that trade in dairy is more restricted than it is, she said."There's a misconception out there that Canada has tariffs in the dairy sector," Hillman said, "which is just not true.""As for the discussion on NAFTA, the request that's been put on the table is that we get rid of supply management," Hillman said. "That's unacceptable for us. We won't do that." The proposal, put forth by U.S. officials in October, attacks Canada's dairy supply-management system by demanding that Canada eliminate an industry pricing classification that lowered domestic prices for certain skim-milk products to the minimum global price. Canada's supply management system seeks to steady income in the Canadian dairy and poultry sectors through use of import barriers and supply quotas. But the pricing policy also increased competition against U.S. imports of ultrafiltered milk, a milk protein concentrate, which U.S. farmers had been exporting duty-free north of the border, where they had developed a lucrative market among Canadian cheesemakers.