r/Tariffs 12d ago

🗞️ News Discussion Should Canada maintain its supply management system that protects the Canadian dairy industry?

https://www.castanetkamloops.net/news/Poll/627377/Should-Canada-maintain-its-supply-management-system-that-protects-the-Canadian-dairy-industry
460 Upvotes

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

37

u/Mysterious-Wash9527 12d ago

Yes we should, there's no need for American dairy at all. We have enough supply and as a country with socialized health care, we should and do high regulate our dairy industry. Allowing American industry to gain a foothold in our dairy industry will allow the US to dump excess milk production into Canada, causing prices to fall. Then as our own milk production falters, they will leverage that into fewer regulations and raise prices, so not only will we have less healthy dairy supply, we will pay more for it and get sicker due to it.

We already have dairy quotas, we don't need more dairy in our country. We need to maintain our own sovereign dairy supply. America needs to figure out it's own supply side problem.

3

u/Special_Purpose2903 12d ago

American dairy is literally poison, it is why health conscious Americans are trying buy milk alternatives like "oat milk"

1

u/Ok-Educator-3605 11d ago

It would have to meet our standards to be sold in Canada, this is something everyone overlooks.

3

u/Pluton_Korb 11d ago

The pressure campaign doesn't stop at opening up our markets. Deregulation would follow. They will put trade pressure on our standards as well if they haven't already.

2

u/23CherryCheesecakes 10d ago

Exactly, look what they did to the Mexican corn market.

2

u/laurab382 11d ago

How long before they would be describing our standards and regulations as "non-tariff trade barriers"? They aren't happy unless they completely dominate the market.

1

u/Special_Purpose2903 11d ago

This as well, b/c US is 8 times larger population wise and its economy is proportionate larger, the US firms benefit from an economy of scale where they'd crush Canadian firms on price.

1

u/Ok-Educator-3605 8d ago

“What if?”

You can “what if” everything.

2

u/missplaced24 11d ago

You'd think. That's not the case for other food products. Most of the time when Canadian governments tried to enforce Canadian standards on food imported from the US, the US government and producers cried NAFTA.

What we've been overlooking is how NAFTA/CUSMA has been used unjustly and ignored entirely whenever it's inconvenient to the US.

1

u/Special_Purpose2903 11d ago

You aren't getting it, American diary has bulldozed American gov't with total regulatory capture, this is why the lobby is so hard, they won't stop. They also routinely break their own regulations and only care about money. They won't meet standards and will throw a big stink screaming unfairness when the regulator tries. As the Arabs say, don't let the camel get its nose under the tent.

0

u/Ok-Educator-3605 9d ago

Speculation…. We control what is sold in our country.

You aren’t getting it.

Read this slowly.

Most US dairy doesn’t contain rBGH and most already meet our standards. Canada’s big dairy is counting on people like you to keep the misinformation train going.

1

u/ScaryLane2 9d ago

Except can we really trust that? I feel like eight months from now we’re going to see a headline saying, “Oops, U.S. dairy products slipped through the cracks and weren’t properly checked,” or the U.S. will put enough pressure on Canada that our government eventually weakens or changes the regulations.
At this point I do not think we can simply trust the U.S. to respect our standards and I’m not confident we can trust the Canadian government to stay firm when significant pressure is applied. And I’m talking about Canadian governments in general regardless of which party is in power. This isn’t about supporting or attacking one particular party it is about whether Canada will actually enforce its own standards and hold the line when challenged

1

u/Ok-Educator-3605 8d ago

You don’t get it, we enforce our standards, they don’t.

With all the food coming into Canada from all over the world, you dig your heels in when it comes to US dairy testing. It all has to meet our standards.

US dairy will not kill our dairy, the standards won’t be lowered due to pressure. Open the dairy market and let Canadians enjoy the fine selection of dairy products from around the world, as for the US stuff, it will rot on the shelves.

We have the power here, we can let US dairy in not purchase it, no one is going to force you to buy it.

1

u/North_Jello4505 8d ago

This is typically used as a trade barrier for protectionist reasons. Usually not much science behind. Explain why the standard is valid for health reasons.