IDFA joined a coalition of 15 dairy companies and organizations this week to oppose further restrictions on U.S. access to the tight Canadian cheese market. The coalition opposes a plan that would significantly reduce access for U.S. exports to enter Canada through low-tariff avenues by reserving a much larger slice of Canadian market access for the European Union.
The plan also violates the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which bars countries from using free trade agreements to restrict trade.
In a recent letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the organizations said the plan would give the EU exclusive access to more than 70 percent of Canada’s “Most Favored Nation” cheese imports. They urged the officials to ask Canada “to abide by their obligations under GATT and refrain from implementing this provision” in the pending Canada-European Union free trade agreement.
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