Federal Trade Minister Mary Ng and Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay are claiming complete victory in the dispute over how Canada allocates import quotas for dairy products from the United States.
The final decision of a disputes-settling panel was released today.
The key news is that the Americans lost their demand that some of the quota be allocated to retailers and food-service companies.
Canada has issued almost all of the permits to dairy processing companies.
The trade deal with Europe includes a provision that some of the import quotas for cheese be allocated to retailers, but the trade deal among Canada, Mexico and the U.S. does not.
Canada was forced to make some changes to its import controls after the first ruling from a disputes-settling panel, but this second panel does not require any further changes.
In the past, Ng has claimed complete victory, but that proved not to be the case when the actual decisions were released.
