The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) have praised Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) for urging an investigation into Canadian dairy pricing policies that have impacted current trade and stand to negatively affect U.S. dairy farmers and manufacturers, jeopardizing the country’s trade commitment to the United States.

In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Schumer and Baldwin expressed concern about Canada’s recently announced National Ingredients Strategy and its already active Ontario Class VI pricing program. According to the senators, these programs incentivize Canadian processors to use Canadian milk and dairy inputs, penalizing them for the use of imported dairy products.

“We are particularly concerned about reports that through these types of programs, Canada is moving to target New York and Wisconsin exports of ultrafiltered milk,” the letter continues. “Companies from our states inform us that they have already lost considerable export sales as a result of the Ontario dairy policy introduced this past spring.”

These of programs are intended to discourage the use of U.S. dairy exports, the senators said, potentially worsening an already challenging economic situation for American dairy farmers.

Schumer and Baldwin also voiced their concern that implementing the new National Ingredients Strategy across Canada could raise further compliance issues with Canada’s NAFTA and WTO obligations by “impeding dairy trade” between the two countries.

Jim Mulhern, President and CEO of NMPF, said “This letter comes at a critical time for both trade and the well-being of America’s dairy producers. We appreciate the Senators’ attention to the importance of holding one of our largest trading partners to its international commitments and the key role that the U.S. government must play in doing so.”

Tom Suber, president of USDEC, said, “Canada has built up a deeply problematic track record of instituting program after program to intentionally erect roadblocks to dairy imports. This volatile situation with a country that should be one of our most reliable trading partners, given the strength of the U.S.-Canada relationship, cannot continue to erode the investments that U.S. dairy companies have made in shipping to this market.”