May 27, 2022
United States Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai announced that the U.S. is again requesting dispute settlement consultations with Canada under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) to address Canadian dairy tariff-rate quota policies.
A USTR news release states that: "Specifically, the United States is challenging Canada's dairy tariff-rate quota (TRQ) allocation measures, which deny allocation access to eligible applicants, including retailers, food service operators, and other types of importers, and impose new conditions on the allocation and use of the TRQs."
"The United States is also challenging Canada's failure to fully allocate its annual dairy TRQs; Canada is instead parceling out a few months' quota at a time. Through these measures, Canada undermines the market access that it agreed to provide in the" CUSMA.
Canada's Minister of International Trade, Mary Ng, issued the following statement regarding the United States' request for consultations:
"Canada has met its obligations under CUSMA to ensure that our TRQ system is compliant. We respect the right of the United States to initiate the dispute resolution mechanism as part of the agreement. Canada will actively participate in CUSMA's consultation process and stand by our position to administer our TRQs in a manner that supports our dairy supply management system."