U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai today, May 25, announced that the United States has requested and established a dispute settlement panel under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to review measures adopted by the government of Canada that undermine the ability of American dairy exporters to sell a wide range of products to Canadian consumers.

USTR said, “The United States is challenging Canada’s allocation of dairy tariff-rate quotas (TRQs), specifically the set-aside of a percentage of each dairy TRQ exclusively for Canadian processors. These measures deny the ability of U.S. dairy farmers, workers, and exporters to utilize the TRQs and realize the full benefit of the USMCA.”

“A top priority for the Biden-Harris administration is fully enforcing the USMCA and ensuring that it benefits American workers,” said Tai. “Launching the first panel request under the agreement will ensure our dairy industry and its workers can seize new opportunities under the USMCA to market and sell U.S. products to Canadian consumers.”

The U.S. dairy industry has said USTR should launch the dispute settlement process if the recent USMCA commission meeting did not result in an agreement on the dairy issues with Canada.