Late in the day Friday CBC news was reporting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade talks could include a big dairy concession.
“Canada is preparing to open the border to more American milk, without getting reciprocal access for Canadian dairy farmers in the United States, CBC News has learned,” read the story on the CBC.ca website.
Chief negotiators from the dozen countries in the TPP negotiations are meeting for four days starting Sept. 26, which will be followed by a meeting of trade ministers on Sept. 30.
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The CBC story quoted Dairy Farmers of Canada director of international trade, Yves Leduc, who said such a concession would be unlikely.
“If that happens, ‘there’s going to be a war,'” Leduc told the CBC. “The industry will never accept that.”
The Western Producer reported in mid-August that Canadian negotiators offered concessions on the country’s supply management system during the recent round of Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks in Hawaii, according to an international trade lawyer.
“Having put that on the table, it means that supply management is negotiable and what we’re now talking about are the numbers,” said Lawrence Herman, principal in Toronto-based Herman & Associates.
“The principle has been established.”
The federal government has been tight-lipped about what took place in Hawaii at the end of July but Herman said he has a “variety of sources of information” that confirm trade minister Ed Fast made a significant move during the 11th hour of negotiations in Maui.
