U.S. groups tell Biden to drop the dairy duel with Canada
Here's something you don't often see in Washington: American groups defending Canadian dairy and urging the U.S. government to leave it alone.
A coalition of 18 labour and farming groups is asking the Biden administration to drop a trade action over dairy launched in the final days of the Trump administration.
They sent a letter to two people nominated to senior positions in the new administration in advance of their Senate confirmation hearings: agriculture secretary nominee Tom Vilsack, who had his hearing Tuesday, and to the nominee for U.S. trade representative, Katherine Tai.
That letter, signed by smaller agriculture groups like the National Family Farm Coalition and the Wisconsin Farmers Union, urges the administration to stop fighting Canada's supply management system.
We've previously reported how some U.S. farmers, battered by wild price fluctuations, dream of seeing their own country adopt a system of price and supply controls as Canada has done.
"The U.S. government has been trying to dismantle Canada's federal and sub-federal supply management systems for years, not to benefit U.S. farmers or workers, but rather corporate dairy interests," said the letter dated Feb. 1.
"Continuing to pursue this complaint is clearly out of step with the new administration's stated commitments to reform the U.S. trade agenda to be pro-worker rather than a business as usual approach that actively favors multinational corporations."