Cheese imports from the United Kingdom will end Jan. 1 because there is no trade deal since the U.K. left the European Union market.
There has been an interim three-year agreement that allowed continued imports, but it ends Dec. 31.
Darren Larvin, chief executive officer for Coombe Castle International, is frustrated because the company has spent four decades developing a market in Canada, much of it for cheddar cheeses for the Christmas season.
He said he is “pretty desperate” because Canadian imports account for about a third of the company’s revenues for award-winning cheeses. It ships abour two million kilograms a year, including party platters, Advent calendars and maple cheddar.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised dairy farmers that there will be no more yielding to dairy imports in upcoming trade deals and Dairy Farmers of Canada president Pierre Lampron is reminding him to hold to that promise in the ongoing negotiations with the U.K.
"For dairy farmers, a promise made is a promise kept and we expect the same from our government," Lampron wrote in a Dec. 1 letter to Trudeau.
"The Canadian dairy industry must not be further penalized by the U.K.'s decision," Lampron said. "New access to the Canadian dairy sector should remain off the negotiation table."
A private member's bill currently in the Senate could also tie negotiators' hands and prohibit future trade treaties from conceding additional imports of supply-managed farm products such as cheese.
In 2023, tariff-rate quota was allocated for up to:
- 16 million kg from the European Union;
- 3.6 million kg from the member countries of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which includes Pacific Rim dairy exporters such as Australia and New Zealand (plus an additional eight million kg of industrial cheese and 2.9 million kg of mozzarella and prepared cheeses from the CPTPP bloc);
- 4.1 million kg under the the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement plus an additional 4.1 million kg of industrial cheeses from the U.S. or Mexico;
- 20.4 million kg to fulfil World Trade Organization obligations, of which:
-14.3 million is reserved for EU members and 6.1 million is available to all other countries.
A side letter on cheese written to accompany the Canada–U.K. Trade Continuity Agreement in 2020 said that "cheese originating in the United Kingdom shall continue to be eligible to be imported into Canada under the reserve for the European Union within Canada's WTO cheese TRQ until no later than Dec. 31, 2023."
After that, companies such as Coombe Castle must compete with exporters from other countries such as Switzerland for space in the second, smaller WTO reserve for non-EU countries, which is already 96 per cent used.
In the meantime, French, German or Dutch cheese could fill the gaps British products leave on Canadian shelves. "Something else will replace it, because retailers have to plan for the future," Larvin said. "It's sad, really."
