U.S. Requests New USMCA Dispute Consultations on Canadian Dairy

Earlier this week, United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced that the United States is requesting new dispute settlement consultations with Canada under USMCA. The request is over Canada’s dairy tariff-rate quota, or TRQ, allocation measures. Since initiating consultations with Canada in May 2022, the United States has identified additional aspects of Canada's measures that appear to be inconsistent with Canada's obligations under USMCA, and U.S. concerns have only increased. With this new request, the United States expands its challenge of Canada’s dairy TRQ allocation measures to include Canada’s use of a market-share approach for determining TRQ allocations.

“Canada remains in violation of its commitments under the USMCA by not removing its trade restrictions on American dairy producers," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

In January of this year, a USMCA dispute settlement panel found Canada’s dairy TRQ allocation measures to be inconsistent with Canada’s USMCA obligations.

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