Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland who rejoined the NAFTA discussions in Washington DC this week says Canada is ready to make concessions on dairy issues. That differs from earlier comments by Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who said Canada won’t back down on dairy issues. Chris Galen with the National Milk Producers Federation says he doesn’t see a break-through in those talks yet for dairy.
He says the U.S. needs market access into Canada and that’s one NAFTA sticking point that must be resolved in order to get a good agreement.
Galen says U.S. and Canadian negotiators are hearing the concerns of the National Milk Producers Federation and see dairy as an important trade issues that needs to be fixed.
Sources close to the U.S.- Canada NAFTA negotiations say negotiators will agree to change one rule that blocks U.S. farmers from exporting unfiltered milk to Canada and also offer the U.S. a percentage of the Canadian dairy market.
