Thousands turned out Tuesday for President Donald Trump’s stop at Snap-On Tools in Kenosha, Wisconsin where the President brought up the current Canadian dairy trade violations and his plans to stand up for dairy farmers.
Because of the new “Class 7” pricing policy, which is expressly designed to disadvantage U.S. exports to Canada and globally, multiple dairy companies in Wisconsin and New York have been forced to inform many of their supplying farmers that the Canadian market for their exports has dried up. For some farmers, this means that the company processing their milk and shipping it up North can no longer accept it starting in May. This is a direct consequence of the country’s National Ingredients Strategy and new Class 7 milk pricing program.
Prior to signing his Buy American, Hire American Executive Order, President Trump made these remarks on Canada dairy trade:
We’re also going to stand up for our dairy farmers in Wisconsin — and I’ve been reading about it, and I’ve been talking about it for a long time — and that demands, really, immediately fair trade with all of our trading partners, and that includes Canada. Because in Canada, some very unfair things have happened to our dairy farmers and others, and we’re going to strategy working on that with Ron and with Scott and with Paul, with all of your representatives. What’s happened to you is very, very unfair. It’s another typical one-sided deal against the United States. And it’s not going to be happening for long.
We’re going to work on that very hard. We’re going to work on it immediately; in fact, starting today. It’s a terrible thing that happened to the farmers of Wisconsin.
In news reports today, Canadian Ambassador David MacNaughton has fired back after Trump’s speech, saying in a letter to the governors of Wisconsin and New York, “Canada does not accept the contention that Canada’s dairy policies are the cause of financial loss for dairy farmers in the United States. The facts do not bear this out.”
MacNaughton attached a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that he said “indicates that poor results in the U.S. sector are due to U.S. and global overproduction.”
After Trump’s speech, the National Milk Producers Federation issued this statement: “We thank President Donald Trump for speaking out today in Wisconsin against the harmful pricing policy Canada implemented in an effort to stifle competition with the United States. We have repeatedly stressed that trade must be fair and that all countries should be held accountable when they break the rules. Canada’s repeated disregard for its dairy trade commitments to the United States has left American dairy farmers enduring the severe and unfair consequences.”
