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Dairy Experts: Trump’s Promised Trade Changes May Not Come Soon Enough

Dairy Policy Analyst Says Changing US-Canadian Trade Agreements Won't Help Farmers Without Milk Contract

By
Cows
Jeff Roberson/AP Photo

President Donald Trump has promised action on Canadian dairy policies he says are unfair to Wisconsin farmers. But as Trump talks about renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, some policy analysts aren’t expecting immediate improvements to dairy exports.

Trump’s commitment came Tuesday after Grassland Dairy Products dropped dozens of Wisconsin farmers after losing sales to Canada.

“Dairy is a very small part of the total trade with Canada, there’s an awful lot more that happens even within agriculture than just dairy,” said Mark Stephenson, director of Dairy Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “So if you’re renegotiating trade agreements like NAFTA, then you’re looking at renegotiating everything.”

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Trade of dairy products is not included in the current NAFTA agreement between the United States and Canada, but Stephenson said it could be added under a renegotiation.

But he said changing trade agreements takes years — time Wisconsin dairy producers don’t have as they scramble to find new buyers for excess milk.

Tensions have continued to rise between farmers and politicians in the United States and Canada since Grassland in Greenwood, Wisconsin, blamed the Canadian policy change for forcing them to cut ties with dairy farmers earlier this month.

Gov. Scott Walker sent a letter Tuesday to Trump calling for federal action on Canada’s “protectionist” policies.

Tuesday evening, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. sent his own letter to Walker, calling for the governor “not to lay blame where it does not belong.”

The ambassador’s letter comes after Trump weighed-in on the dispute during a visit to a Kenosha manufacturing company Tuesday.

The U.S.-Canadian dispute has spread to Minnesota, where officials say 19 dairy farms are affected, according to The Associated Press. Some New York producers are also affected.

Lucas Sjostrom, executive director of the Minnesota Milk Producers Association, said Wednesday that 19 Minnesota producers are among the 70 to 75 initially reported as all being from Wisconsin.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton wrote to Trump last week urging him to uphold free trade, according to AP.

Despite Trump’s promises to find a “solution” to the dispute, Stephenson said dairy farmers aren’t holding their breath.

“President Trump has had some pretty vocal and strong stances on things that he has walked back on, and, you know, I don’t know if trade is going to be one of those as well. We’ll have to wait and see,” Stephenson said.