Trade with Canada: The Milky Facts
Canada guarantees a minimum price for milk for its dairy farmers, just is the U.S. does for its farmers on 13 agricultural products, including milk. Canada uses tariffs on milk to limit the supply and keep milk prices from falling, which would increase the Canadian government’s cost of subsidies. These tariffs only apply to shipments above the Canadian quota. The U.S. does not exceed the quota and therefore pays no tariffs.
The U.S. ships significant quantities of unfiltered milk to Canada. It is used to product cheese and is free to tariffs.
In 2017, the U.S. sold five times as much dairy products to Canada ($792 million) as Canada sold to the U.S. ($149). Total U.S. exports to Canada were $341 billion in 2017 and imports were $333 billion, which produced a U.S. trade surplus in goods and services of $8 billion.
Finally, Canada agreed to end its dairy quotas as part of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). In fact, eleven nations reduced or ended tariffs on 14,000 American made products under the TPP Agreement. The Trump Administration withdrew from TPP agreement.
