Four Canadian dairy producers will no longer be shipping their milk into the U.S., something that they had been doing illegally, potentially disrupting trade balances.
“The milk that’s come over the border is a drop in the bucket,” said Jessica Chittenden, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Agriculture and Markets. “But it’s the principle. Here are farmers producing milk outside of the U.S. They haven’t been following the rules.”
At issue is an international trade regulation govern quotas for dairy imports between the two countries.
In May 2003, the World Trade Organization ruled that Canadian dairy farmers should participate in a quota system. U.S. officials hoped that agreement would level the playing field for American producers.
Currently, New York and Canadian officials know of only four Canadian dairy producers that are sending the milk across the border. New York is the third largest dairy producing state, behind California and Wisconsin.
But this month a Canadian court issued a restraining order against the Ontario-based dairy farmers that would restrict them from exporting the milk to the United States.
Accepting Canadian milk isn’t illegal, state officials said, but could potentially upset trade balances. And while the farmers that sent their milk stateside aren’t hurting dairy sales in New York at this point, the state wants the practice to end.
State Department of Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker had complained to U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab late last year that the issue hadn’t been resolved after the 2003 World Trade Organization ruling.