TORONTO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th December, 2020) Canada's dairy exports are in full compliance with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), Minister of Small business, Export Promotion Mary Ng's press secretary told Sputnik.
Earlier in the day, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer filed a complaint under the USMCA alleging that Canadian dairy import allocations contravene the accord. US officials say that Canadian dairy tariffs rate quotas (TRQs) - allocations for duty-free imports - were reserved for domestic processors, which would undermine the ability of American farmers to export a wide variety of their products north of the border.
"Canada's administration of its dairy TRQs is in full compliance with its commitments under the new NAFTA," Youmy Han said in a statement to Sputnik on Wednesday.
Ottawa takes its obligations under the USMCA "very seriously," like all aspects of the bilateral relationship between the two neighbors, the press secretary added.
The US dairy industry has decried Canada's allocation of TRQs, saying that it fell well short of what was negotiated in the deal signed into law earlier this year.
