{"id":865407,"date":"2026-08-20T21:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T21:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/865407\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T21:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T21:10:17","slug":"canada-trade-deal-why-is-the-u-s-mad-about-who-sells-cheese-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/865407\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada trade deal: Why is the U.S. mad about who sells cheese in Canada?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Al Mussell, fellow-in-residence at C.D. Howe Institute, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss the cheese import rules amid Canada-U.S. trade tensions. <\/p>\n

Cheese has once again become a hot topic in the Canada-U.S. trade dispute.<\/p>\n

While officials work to lower sectoral tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, the U.S. wants Canada to change its strict rules on importing cheese, which a Canadian agricultural economist warns heavily against.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not in the Canadian interest,\u201d explains Al Mussell, a prominent Canadian agricultural economist and policy analyst.<\/p>\n

Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order threatening a 50 per cent tariff on Canada\u2019s dairy sector, which is now in a three day suspension period as negotiations continue. <\/p>\n

\"\"Canadian dairy cheese Raphael Kaiser stores some of the artisinal cheeses at the production facility of Fromagerie Fritz Kaiser in Noyan, Que., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018.THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Ryan Remiorz <\/p>\n

Mussell explains that the U.S. wants more control over who can access Canadian retailers directly, so they can export some of their premium products to Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, that\u2019s not how our system works,\u201d he says, adding that allowing it would threaten Canadian processors and complicate the domestic raw milk allocation system.<\/p>\n

Canada currently gives dairy import quota access mainly to processors, while retailers are excluded under CUSMA. The U.S. argues that this restriction creates an unfair playing field because retailers are granted access under Canada\u2019s trade agreement with the European Union.<\/p>\n

The U.S. administration says<\/a> \u201cCanada is discriminating against the commerce of the United States through Canada\u2019s tariff-rate quota allocation measures imposed on U.S. cheeses of all types.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada and the U.S. have fought over this before<\/p>\n

The dispute over who gets access to Canada\u2019s dairy quotas is not new.<\/p>\n

The U.S. first launched a formal dispute under CUSMA, arguing that Canada\u2019s dairy import system shut out U.S. producers because it gave almost all its import permits to domestic dairy factories.<\/p>\n

After a trade panel ruled that this was unfair, Canada changed the rules to let other dairy businesses, like distributors, get the permits too. However, retailers remain excluded.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Dairy farm A cow in a dairy farm, Tuesday, January 23, 2024 in Saguenay Que. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Jacques Boissinot <\/p>\n

When the U.S. challenged Canada again, arguing retailers should also be allowed direct access, the panel sided with Canada, saying it was in compliance with CUSMA.<\/p>\n

Mussell says the U.S. continuing to press the issue despite that ruling is not a good sign. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it goes far beyond cheese or dairy products,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the President can come in and make threats that contravene a decision that the dispute panel under the CUSMA agreement rendered\u2026 that\u2019s really troubling.\u201d<\/p>\n

What happens if retailers get more access?<\/p>\n

Mussell says giving grocery retailers direct access would not increase the total amount of U.S. cheese entering Canada, since the quota is already essentially filled, but it could shift sales away from Canadian manufacturers.<\/p>\n

He says it could also complicate Canada\u2019s supply management system because raw milk is allocated to processing plants on a regulated basis.<\/p>\n

\"\"Canadian dairy Cows are milked at a dairy farm in Granby, Que., on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Christinne Muschi <\/p>\n

\u201cThat could be costly to the Canadian dairy industry,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Mussell also warns that giving grocery retailers more direct access to imports could strengthen their negotiating position with Canadian dairy suppliers.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour\u2019re kind of arming them in terms of the sorts of relations that they can have with their dairy suppliers,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u2018Our national food sovereignty is not up for negotiation\u2019<\/p>\n

In response to the tariff threat, a joint letter by the Dairy Farmers of Canada and the Dairy Processors Association of Canada<\/a> last week expressed disappointment that the dairy sector was dragged into a trade dispute once again.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur national food sovereignty is not up for negotiation,\u201d said David Wiens, president of DFC.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is also clear that Canadians believe in the importance of having control over our food supply and ensuring that Canada\u2019s strong domestic dairy sector is not compromised.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trade relationship in dairy already \u201cmassively favours the U.S.\u201d said Mathieu Frigon, president of the DPAC. <\/p>\n

\u201cU.S. dairy exports to Canada far exceed Canadian dairy exports to the U.S. by more than $600 million annually and have increased by more than 150% since CUSMA came into effect,\u201d said Frigon.<\/p>\n

What about the quality of U.S. dairy?<\/p>\n

Mussell says even if more U.S. milk entered Canada, there is a major difference between Canadian and U.S. dairy quality standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could have milk that shipped under the U.S. Grade A that would not be saleable in any province in Canada,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"Canadian milk Canadian milk is seen at grocery store in Ottawa, on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Justin Tang <\/p>\n

Moreover, he says a significant amount of American milk doesn\u2019t even meet its own Grade A standard. <\/p>\n

\u201cIs that product being exported to Canada, made from that milk? We don\u2019t know. They don\u2019t label. We have no way of knowing that,\u201d says Mussell. <\/p>\n

He says federal funding for labs that monitor the U.S. milk testing system stopped last year. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the nature of the safety and quality of product that we\u2019re getting from the United States? I don\u2019t know that we have an answer for that, and it\u2019s concerning,\u201d says Mussell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Al Mussell, fellow-in-residence at C.D. Howe Institute, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss the cheese import rules amid Canada-U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[712,45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-865407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-apple-news","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}