It imposes strict quotas on how much milk product it will import freely from other nations, sets high tariffs to limit imports above those quotas and generally opens only a small portion of its dairy market to foreign competitors. Yet the American system for managing dairy trade is in many ways similar to Canada’s, and the States actually imports proportionately fewer milk products than this country does, according to one analysis. The American call for Canada to loosen its restrictions on dairy imports has picked up pace in the last week, with Trump threatening the “ruination” of 20-per-cent auto tariffs if Canada doesn’t open the door to more American milk goods. The main barrier to Canadian dairy producers entering the U.S. market is not American tariffs – which are lower than those north of the border – but the fact Canadian prices are much steeper than those of American competitors, he said. Canadian “outside-quota” tariffs are very high – as much as 300% for some products, a fact that Trump has often highlighted in his attacks on Canada’s protectionism.

Source: National Post September 11, 2018 22:52 UTC