With negotiators facing an informal deadline of Friday for agreement on the new NAFTA, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada will reject U.S. proposals to dismantle its supply management system, said Canadian Press on Wednesday. Dairy “is one of the few cards the Trudeau government has left to play at the bargaining table,” said the news agency, adding that President Trump seems focused more on high tariff rates for one type of dairy product than on an overall phaseout of the supply management system.
However, the White House list of NAFTA goals includes the elimination of supply management. “I have said that is not acceptable to us,” Trudeau told reporters in northern Ontario. Supply management is a sensitive issue in Canada. Farm groups say it assures a stable market and price for dairy and poultry. U.S. critics say Canadian consumers would pay less at the grocery store if more imports were allowed. Trump has complained particularly about tariffs that restrict imports of ultra-filtered milk, which is used to make such products as cheese and yogurt.
Polling by the Angus Reid Institute found that 45 percent of Canadians were willing to use supply management as a NAFTA bargaining chip, “but only as a last resort.” The nonprofit Canadian foundation said that while 29 percent insisted on keeping supply management in place, 26 percent agreed that Canada should “offer to end supply management immediately.”