An Austalian dairy-industry newsletter has found that Wisdon’s dairy farmers aren’t talking about it and when they’re asked, they figure their gains were only tiny.
But during tense months before the trade deal among Mexico, Canada and the United States was struck, Trump made a big deal about forcing Canada to make concessions on dairy.
His negotiating team did manage to make two big gains. One was to force Canadians to scrap the special category for milk priced low enough to enable Canadian processors to compete and displace imports of fractionated milk that was flooding into Canada.
Another was to increase the volume (quota) of American dairy products that could enter Canada at a much lower tariff rate.
It was Canada’s move to cut prices that touched off a political storm in Wisconsin because exports that had been surging stopped and that coincided with dairies cancelling contracts to buy milk from a few dozen farmers.
