WASHINGTON – This week, Congressman David G. Valadao joined a group of bipartisan members in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack to ensure Canada lives up to its commitments under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

In January, a USMCA panel ruled in favor of the United States and found that Canada was breaching its commitments by reserving most of its dairy tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) for the exclusive use of Canadian processors. Canada recently announced proposed changes for dairy TRQs as a result of this decision, but their response continues to fall short and effectively preserves the status quo.

“The USMCA was negotiated to benefit America and Canada alike, but our dairy industry won’t see the benefits unless Canada upholds their end of the deal,” said Congressman Valadao. “We need to enforce our trade agreements to protect fair market access for dairy farmers and manufacturers in the Central Valley. As the representative of our nation’s largest dairy district, I will continue working to ensure Canada upholds their commitments to the U.S. dairy industry.”  

In order to demonstrate that the USMCA enforcement process works – not just to deliver the right findings but also to ensure faithful implementation of the overall agreement – the lawmakers are urging Ambassador Tai and Secretary Vilsack to insist on deeper reforms to bring Canada's dairy TRQ allocation system into compliance.   

Rep. Valadao joined Reps. Ron Kind (D-WI), Tom Reed (R-NY), Antonio Delgado (D-NY), Glenn "G.T." Thompson (R-PA), Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Dusty Johnson (R-SD), and Jim Costa (D-CA) in the letter.

Read the full letter here and below:


 April 5, 2022

Dear Ambassador Tai and Secretary Vilsack,

Thank you for prioritizing robust implementation and enforcement of the United States-Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA), particularly its dairy provisions. Harnessing the full use of USMCA’s expanded access for U.S. dairy exports remains a key priority for dairy farmers and manufacturers employing thousands of Americans in our districts and across the country. We appreciate the strong action taken by the Administration in moving forward with USMCA’s first dispute settlement case, which found that Canada is improperly limiting access to its dairy market in contravention of USMCA. Translating this win into an outcome that delivers the full benefit of the agreement is vital for America’s dairy industry.

We noted with interest Canada’s recently proposed allocation and administration policy changes for dairy tariff-rate quotas (TRQs). We believe this proposal would continue to fall short of what USMCA requires. Accordingly, we urge you to insist on much deeper reforms to bring Canada’s dairy TRQ allocation system into compliance with its USMCA commitments. For instance, Canada’s proposal continues to exclude major swaths of its food and agricultural sector from the TRQ by blocking access of retailers and food service companies. Additionally, its proposed approach to allocating shares of access would continue to deliver the bulk of the TRQ volumes to U.S. dairy manufacturers’ Canadian competitors. In short, Canada’s proposal amounts to little more than window dressing as it appears designed to effectively preserve the status quo of who can bring in the vast majority of U.S. dairy products under USMCA’s dairy TRQ.

As the first dispute resolution case under the USMCA, we know you understand well that this dispute will set a powerful precedent. The decisions the United States government makes next will send a clear signal to our trading partners regarding future dispute panels and the degree of compliance we will require. A deal’s a deal; it’s not too much to ask that our trading partners live up to their end of the bargain. That is why it is critical that this compliance stage of the USMCA dairy case demonstrate that the USMCA enforcement process works – not just to deliver the right finding, as it did in January – but to ensure faithful implementation of the overall agreement and drive real, tangible reforms that are seen on store shelves, to the benefit of American dairy producers and manufacturers, as intended.

We appreciate your continued commitment to robust USMCA enforcement, and we look forward to the day where American farmers, manufacturers, workers, and others benefit fully from this trade agreement that our nation has so painstakingly negotiated.

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