WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The US on Tuesday said it was searching for a second dispute settlement panel over Canada’s dairy import quotas under the North American trade agreement, charging that Canada was still not meeting obligations to open its market to American producers.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s office said it was difficult Canada’s revised tariff-rate quota allocations that were put in place last 12 months after a previous dispute panel decision under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade.
USTR said in an announcement that Canada was unfairly using a market-share approach for determining TRQ allocations, and had imposed recent conditions that effectively prohibit retailers, food service operators, and other sorts of importers from utilizing quota allocations.
“Although america won a previous USMCA dispute on Canada’s dairy TRQ allocation policies, the Canadian government’s revised measures haven’t fixed the issue,” Ambassador Katherine Tai said in an announcement.
Canada’s trade minister, Mary Ng said in an announcement issued in Ottawa that she was ‘dissatisfied’ within the U.S. move and would defend Canada’s longstanding Supply Management system that protects Canadian dairy farmers from imports.
“We are going to stand firm against attempts to re-negotiate during this dispute settlement panel process,” Ng said.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
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