Costs Continue To Mount As Canada Flouts Trade Obligations

The Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand (DCANZ) is welcoming the New Zealand Government’s commitment to continuing to push for Canada to honour its trade commitments.

This follows Canada’s confirmation of its approach to administering its CPTPP dairy import quotas that will again place the majority of quota access in the hands of domestic processors, who have limited interest in importing from CPTPP countries.

"DCANZ agrees with the New Zealand Government assessment that Canada has cynically moved to replicate the outcome that the dispute panel ruled against," says DCANZ Executive Director Kimberly Crewther.

"The costs of Canada’s flouting trade rules are mounting for the New Zealand dairy industry".

It is estimated that Canada’s disregard for the CPTPP rules denied New Zealand dairy exporters over $120 million in trade opportunities in the first three years of the CPTPP agreement, and these costs continue to grow.

In addition, New Zealand dairy exporters are also concerned that Canada is disregarding its WTO trade commitments.

"Not only is Canada restricting access into its market, but we are also seeing a rising tide of subsidised Canadian dairy exports in other markets, contrary to previous WTO legal rulings. This is putting a billion dollars of New Zealand dairy protein exports to global markets at risk".

Crewther says that "Canada is a recidivist in its disregard for trade rules and this should be a concern for all its trading partners. The value of trade agreements are diminished when commitments aren’t honoured. Where a country refuses to adhere to trade dispute rulings the system as a whole is weakened".

The approach that Canada takes to dairy trade not only harms our interests but also means their consumers have less choice and higher food prices.

DCANZ will be engaging with New Zealand officials as they evaluate next steps to bring Canada into compliance with both its CPTPP and WTO dairy trade commitments.

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