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Dairy Farmers of Canada President itemizes damage to his industry from USMCA

Oct 2, 2018 | 11:17 PM

OTTAWA — The President of the Dairy Farmers of Canada is calling it a nightmare that has become a reality.

Despite multiple assurance to the contrary, Pierre Lampron commented in an opinion letter that the Trudeau government sacrificed his industry, once again, at the altar of flawed trade negotiations.

He wrote, “Faced with an American administration that prefers to dump their problem on our doorstep rather than fix it itself, the Trudeau government has failed to stand up for Canada’s family-owned dairy farms and homegrown dairy.  Even worse, this deal will allow Americans to dictate our dairy policies.”

By agreeing to the new United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA), Lampron writes, “the Trudeau government is opening the door to giant industrial farms and will allow the US dairy model to take hold here at home. Canadians do not want to fund milk production through their taxes.  Canadians do not want family farms to give way to industrial farms with tens of thousands of cows.”

Lampron is concerned the government may be prepared to concede more market to the UK when it comes knocking on our door for access to our dairy market following Brexit, as the US deal is not the first to hit Canadian dairy farmers.

“The dairy industry in Canada has been repeatedly used as a bargaining chip for our government’s trade aspirations. How much more of their livelihood will Canadian dairy farmers be asked to give up? The combined access given under the EU trade agreement and with the transpacific countries alone already equated to $250 million dollars annually in lost milk production here at home, which ultimately benefits dairy industries in other countries.”                                            

Lampron says dairy farmers aren’t the only ones to pay the price for these deals. Some 220,000 Canadian families depend on dairy for their livelihood, including those in dairy processing plants, equipment dealers, feed manufacturers, veterinarians, truck drivers, and a host of connected industries. 

“The cumulative effect of these trade deals leads to the erosion of a secure and quality domestic food supply for Canadian families. Should this not be a priority for our government?”