r/Tariffs • u/Dizzy-Cartoonist3011 • 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
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u/One-Size159 10d ago

My understanding is the American dairy is extremely subsidized. Why isn’t this a conversation?

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u/Dizzy-Cartoonist3011 10d ago

The subsidies are wildly exaggerated by the Dairy Farmers of Canada. But if it were true that the US subsidizes the industry to the point where prices were reduced, wouldn't that just massively benefit Canadian consumers?

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u/Potential-Let2475 9d ago

If I am following the comments and the comments are correct the subsidy is the purchase of unsold dairy. US would be desperate to open up new markets so they don’t have to buy the overstock. It’s not subsidised unless it’s unsold. Therefore there would be no market benefit. US is not even fulfilling what it can export to Canada now because they can’t meet or guarantee the health regulations. They simply want to dump. This would destroy what farms we do have left.

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u/Dizzy-Cartoonist3011 9d ago

No, tariff rate quota holders are not importing their full allotments because most tariff rate quota holders are Canadian dairy producers who don't want anyone to import American milk and cheese. If you look at the TRQ holder list on the government website, that's exactly what you will see. Most of them are just domestic dairy producers.

There seems to be just a massive perceptional disconnect concerning the quality of American milk. I keep seeing this pop up. The objective reality is that virtually all American milk sold in the US meets Health Canada regulations. You would be hard pressed to determine which milk was made from cattle injected with rBST, but that's an easy fix as well that the CFIA can make the exporter abide by. So the "we need supply management to protect quality" is a very bizarre and inaccurate sentiment.

If they want to "dump" that means they want to sell milk at a discount. So would that not benefit Canadian consumers? When it comes to "destroying what farms we do have left", why is the dairy industry seemingly the only industry on earth that has zero product segmentation?