Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Elise Stefanik announced that, following her continued advocacy, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is taking further action to address Canada’s breach of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and ensure proper access to the Canadian market for Upstate New York dairy farmers.
USTR announced that it is establishing a second panel to determine whether Canada has been in violation of its market access obligations under the agreement. The first panel found Canada’s dairy tariff-rate quota allocation measures to be inconsistent with their obligations under USMCA.
This step follows Stefanik pointing out and calling for action after Canada breached its commitments under USMCA by unfairly administering dairy tariff-rate quotas in a way that harms American dairy farmers.
“I am proud to announce that, following my advocacy, USTR is continuing to work to ensure our dairy farmers will receive well-deserved access to the Canadian dairy market," Stefanik said. “Our dairy farmers work hard to provide delicious and nutritious products for our communities and deserve the expanded market access they were promised as part of USMCA. I will continue to work to ensure Canada fully abides by its dairy market access commitments, and I will continue to advocate for results for Upstate dairy farmers.”
If the panel confirms that Canada has been violating its obligations under USMCA, the U.S. would be granted the right to impose retaliatory duties if Canada fails to fix its unfair tariff-rate quota administrative practices.
In May 2021, Stefanik sent a letter to United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai, encouraging USTR to fully enforce dairy provisions in USMCA. Following Stefanik’s advocacy, USTR announced in January 2022 that the agency established a Dispute Settlement Panel to consider Canada’s failure to comply with dairy tariff-rate quota (TRQ) provisions in USMCA. The January 2022 decision resulted from the creation of this panel. In March 2022, Stefanik called on USTR Trade Representative Katherine Tai to reject Canada’s proposed changes to their dairy tariff-rate quotas under the USMCA.
