The new United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) has received poor reviews from Canadian dairy farmers.
Co-owner of London Dairy Farms Craig Connell calls the deal “ludicrous”.
“Its basically giving complete control to the Americans.”
The new agreement plans on giving US farmers 3.9% more access to the Canadian market, and getting rid of a key act that protects the pricing on Canadian products. Class 7 was an act instituted by the Canadian government to allow farmers to compete with US prices on certain dairy products. Connell says the removal of that act will make it hard for the Canadian market to grow.
“If they do away with Class 7, any future growth is going to be very limited.”
The government has said that they are working to protect the Canadian market by keeping the supply management in Canada, but Connell only says this is just what the Americans want.
“We played right into the US’s hands. They didn’t want us to do away with supply management because we would’ve become competitors.”
In terms of the future growth of his business, Connell says they are going to try and produce as much product as they can, but admitting it will be hard given the current state of the deal.
He doesn’t anticipate these changes to come into effect until five or six years after the deal becomes official.
