A trade dispute settlement panel rejected a U-S complaint that Canada is improperly limiting access to its dairy market under a 2020 free trade agreement, the USMCA or United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
On a 2-1 vote, the 3-member independent panel ruled that Canada had not acted unreasonably. A similar USMCA panel ruled in January of last year that Canada had violated the accord by not opening up the domestic market enough.
Canada amended its policies, but the U-S again filed a complaint – leading to the new panel which cited the Canadian changes in ruling against the United States on Friday.
U-S Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement that she was “very disappointed” by the ruling and that the U-S continues to have serious concerns about how Canada is implementing the dairy market access commitments it made
Nebraska 3rd District Congressman Adrian Smith, Chairman of the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, also says he’s disappointed in the settlement panel’s ruling.
Smith says it “doesn’t take away from the panel’s 2022 determination that Canada breached its USMCA commitments with its dairy restrictions,” and that “market access is one of the most important components of our rules-based trading system
He warns that “Canada’s failure to come to the table and honor its USMCA commitments would have a lasting and negative impact on the bilateral and economic partnership between our countries.”
Smith says he remains “fully supportive” of Ambassador Tai and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack in their efforts to hold Canada to its USMCA commitments. Tai has said the U-S “will not hesitate to use all available tools to enforce our trade agreements.”