Milk producers prepare for an ‘important fight’

The “fight” to protect supply management in Canada will be “important,” according to dairy farmers, who are urging politicians not to make decisions “under threat.”

“We have to do things right,” pleaded Daniel Gobeil, president of the Quebec Milk Producers, in a telephone interview with The Canadian Press.

He warns Quebec and Ottawa against the risk of adopting inflationary measures that would harm producers during the trade war with the United States.

And he urges them to make no concessions on supply management during the upcoming renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Gobeil claims to have the support of the Quebec population.

According to a Léger poll he commissioned, 83 per cent of Quebecers want governments to do everything in their power to protect the country’s supply management system.

Since 1972, this system has stabilized prices in Canada and restricted imports to protect the dairy, egg, and poultry industries from international competition.

According to its critics, it represents undue government interference in an important economic sector, a form of state subsidy incompatible with the concept of free trade.

However, according to Léger, 63 per cent of Quebecers have a negative opinion of a government that would compromise on the protection of dairy farmers in negotiations with the United States.

The data was collected from 1,001 Quebec adults between Feb. 21 and 23, but has only just been made public. As this is a web survey, no margin of error can be attributed to it.

“Having a strong signal from the population is a powerful message, and for us, it’s reassuring,” said Gobeil, who believes that Quebecers understand supply management and are “sensitive” to it.

So far, the Quebec and Canadian governments have assured that they will protect supply management, but U.S. President Donald Trump is becoming increasingly belligerent.

Dairy farmers say they are more worried about the impending battle over supply management than Trump’s threat to impose “reciprocal” 250 per cent tariffs on milk as early as April 2.

Almost all dairy products produced in Canada are sold for domestic consumption, meaning that the U.S. tariffs would only affect a small portion of the market.

Regarding supply management, however, Gobeil maintains that the “elastic band” has been stretched to the limit. “We’re really at breaking point,” he said.

He recalled that in 2018, Canada agreed to allow American dairy producers access to approximately 3.5 per cent of the domestic market.

“For us, (…) it was very damaging. It was two to three years of growth that was given away,” lamented the president of the Quebec Milk Producers.

“At some point, governments will no longer be able to claim that they’re protecting supply management while conceding market share,” he warned.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews