Terence Corcoran: Let’s cheer for New Zealand in its dairy trade battle with Canada — via fpcomment
New ZealandThese prices are not strictly comparable, but the values are a decent approximation of where Canada stands with New Zealand and the United States. The price gaps should also be no surprise, since Canada’s butter producers and other dairy industries are protected behind trade barriers to prevent lower-price imports from entering the Canadian market.
The Canadian dairy protectionism regime that keeps Canadian butter, milk, cheese, yogurt and other prices high for consumers is currently under review at a dispute settlement panel that met Wednesday in Ottawa. The case pits Canada against New Zealand, whichAdvertisement 4New Zealand, supported by Australia, is taking on Ottawa for allegedly breaching the international trade agreement the Trudeau government signed early in its first mandate.
Canada has reportedly argued that New Zealand’s effort would lead to “absurd outcomes,” although the New Zealand appeal may well be the document that reveals the absurdity of Canada’s tangled manipulation of trade regulations that have the effect of keeping out imports of dairy products and impose substantially higher costs on consumers.
In Ottawa, there is much talk in regulatory and political circles of the need to curb the hypothetical “monopoly” pricing powers of corporations that gouge consumers while ignoring the real monopoly power of government programs, such as dairy supply management, which grant pricing and import control powers to the such agencies as the Canadian Dairy Commission.Article contentto prevent foreign suppliers from selling their products in Canada.
The trade agreement itself falls short of opening free trade, since it seems to have allowed Canada to impose various limits on the import of dairy products from individual nations. According to the New Zealand and Australia filing documents Canada has arbitrarily — and contrary to the trade deal — prevented Canadian retailers from purchasing New Zealand butter and cheeses.
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