He was commenting on the North American Free Trade
Negotiations, but he could also be referencing the World Trade Organization
where the U.S. could file a challenge against the pricing designed to displace
imports from the United States of a new category of dairy product – diafiltered
milk.
Because it’s new, it’s not on Canada’s list of dairy
products facing stiff import duties of up to 300 per cent.
Vilsack said “obviously our position is that Class 7 has to go, that it’s
manipulating a system in a way that is unfair and not consistent with the spirit
of international agreements.”
Vilsack also said “Canadian supply management can’t be sustained if you
are committed to open and free trade.
That echoes the U.S. position taken at NAFTA negotiations last week, and
it extends to chickens, eggs, turkeys and hatching eggs as well as dairy.
“It’s unfair not only to U.S. producers but to producers all over the
world and it’s also unfair to consumers in Canada who are basically paying a
lot more for their dairy products than they would need to had they had an open
system,” Vilsack said.
Vilsack says it’s critically important to do no harm to the other party
in the negotiations—Mexico.
“We need to be able to preserve markets in Mexico so that we don’t
create additional barriers to access,” he says. “Mexico is our number one
market. If you start to see an imposing of tariffs and barriers then that
market basically begins to peel off and we begin to lose market share to the EU
or New Zealand.”
Canada and Mexico have been making common cause on a number of issues
raised by the U.S.
