A Push by Vilsack to Make USMCA a True Victory for U.S. Dairy
Despite the United States winning its first challenge over dairy with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) agreement earlier this year, USDA Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, told AgriTalk’s host, Chip Flory, that he is not satisfied with the market access into Canada for dairy products.
“We're not satisfied at all,” Vilsack says. “That's one of the reasons why we press the trade representative to bring the case under the sort of the dispute resolution process of USMCA panel decided that Canada had to structure its TRQ (tariff-rate quota) differently.”
Vilsack stated that the U.S. is selling dairy products into the market with only a couple of processors, and those processors don't need what the U.S. is trying to sell under USMCA.
“We want to expand the number of customers and because of the system they have up there, Canadians are very reluctant to do that because they feel their dairy industry will suffer,” Vilsack reports.
As previous president of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, Vilsack is committed to getting access for U.S. dairy products to go into Canada under USMCA. He shared with Flory that the U.S. plans to push and continue to express concerns about compliance with USMCA.
“We’re going to continue to push. This is not going away. And I think that's what we have to convince the Canadians that they can't do the shell game, they can't move the pea around, they have to basically own up to the promises they made,” Vilsack stated.
Earlier this year, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced that the U.S. prevailed in its first dispute settlement panel proceeding brought under USCMA. Vilsack stated that the ruling was an initial big step for the U.S. dairy sector towards realizing the full benefits of the USMCA and securing real access to the Canadian market for additional high-quality American dairy products.
Vilsack tweeted back on Jan. 4, 2022, “Good news for U.S. dairy farmers. This enforcement action reflects the Biden-Harris Administration’s deep commitment to enforcing the USMCA and to ensuring that U.S. trade policy works for American farmers.”
Now, nearly four months later, Vilsack knows the first step isn’t the last step and more still needs to be done. He told Flory that he is committed to making USMCA a true win for dairy, even if it takes another case and another effort, he will certainly recommend that.
