By Roger White

Ritz on Dairy: ‘We have free trade not fair trade’

Apr 27, 2017 | 4:03 PM

When it comes to agriculture, member of Parliament Gerry Ritz knows what he’s talking about. The Battlefords-Lloydminster MP held the agriculture portfolio with the Stephen Harper government.

So when U.S. President Donald Trump made threats this week that he would be imposing duties on Canada’s dairy industry, Ritz paid close attention.

“He’s [Trump] really been misinformed on this issue,” Ritz said. “He has made it clear that he is coming after the dairy industry but like softwood, dairy is not and never has been under the NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement] umbrella. So going after these sectors because you want to renegotiate the agreement doesn’t make sense.”

Trump recently stated his plan is to renegotiate NAFTA or terminate it altogether. As for details on the Canadian dairy industry, most of Trump’s commentary has come via Twitter. On Tuesday the president tweeted: “Canada has made business for our dairy farmers in Wisconsin and other border states very difficult. We will not stand for this. Watch!”

“The trade imbalance within the dairy sector is very much in the U.S.’s favour — almost five-to-one due to our supply management,” Ritz added. “They have access on an annual basis of some $550 million in Canadian content going South.”

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Canada’s supply management system provides balance in the dairy sector by enabling Canadian dairy farmers to act collectively to negotiate price and adjust milk production to meet consumer demand.

“Our supply management system has always been a political punching bag on the world’s stage,” Ritz noted. “We [Conservatives] as a government were able to negotiate very good deals with both the European Union and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.”

As the official international trade critic, Ritz also believes the U.S. president is shooting himself in the foot when he suggested Canada has made life difficult for American dairy farmers. Ritz blames oversupply and he is not alone in making that claim.

“Even farmers in Wisconsin are saying Canada cannot help with our oversupply,” Ritz explained. “When the U.S. who has 10 times more population than Canada can’t eat up their surplus of dairy what makes them think we can?”

Ritz says Trudeau should be as tough as the Americans are when it comes to free trade.

“It should be interesting because we have free trade, but it’s not really fair trade,” he said.

roger.white@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW