LeBlanc declares supply management is “off-limits” in trade talks
Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc has declared Canada’s dairy supply management system off-limits in trade talks with the U.S.
Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc has declared Canada’s dairy supply management system off-limits in trade talks with the U.S.
On Wednesday, the minister shut down any notion that supply management could become a bargaining chip despite U.S. attempts to have Canada bring it to the table.
“We have been very clear from the beginning that supply management is not a subject of negotiation with the Americans,” LeBlanc said in an interview aired this week.
“Our government passed a law that we supported happily to make it clear that supply management is not a subject of negotiations and international trade agreements.”
The comments come amid renewed speculation that Canada’s tightly controlled dairy, egg and poultry system faces pressure in upcoming trade negotiations with the United States. The Trump administration has previously criticized the system, calling it unfair to U.S. dairy producers.
Canada’s supply management system limits domestic production through quotas and protects farmers with high import tariffs.
In an interview with True North in July, trade expert David Clement from the Consumer Choice Centre blamed supply management for blocking a new US-Canada free trade agreement.
While successive governments have defended it as a means of ensuring stable incomes for Canadian producers, critics argue it inflates costs and stifles competition.
LeBlanc’s reassurances drew sharp criticism from prominent food policy expert Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, also known as the food professor, who pointed out a pattern of Liberal contradictions on the file.
In a post on X, Charlebois highlighted multiple past statements by LeBlanc pledging to protect supply management, including remarks in 2009 and 2016.
He contrasted that with the 2020 USMCA agreement, signed under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which granted U.S. producers increased access to Canada’s dairy market.
“The hypocrisy is mind-blowing,” Charlebois wrote.
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t seems to me that Quebec and the Liberals are bound and determined, Hell bent, on having the country of Canada apply for MAID.
The SMS is long past its best-used-by-date. It benefits no one except multi-national mega corporations such as Saputo, mainly in Quebec, while Canadian consumers get to pay hugely inflated prices for dairy and poultry products. That includes Quebec consumers.
This, BTW, is the same province that while accepting billions of dollars annually from Alberta in equalisation payments, refuses to allow an eastern pipeline. Trying to mentally reconcile how those two opposing positions can be tolerated, causes my mind to blur at the illogic.
The SMS is the monopolistic system that requires its members to dump millions of litres of milk annually, in order to keep the prices high. Farmers are not allowed to sell this product at a discount, or even donate it to charity. Disgraceful.
What a great time for Dominic Leblanc and the government to draw a further, destructive line in the sand on this issue - on the international stage.
We are being tariffed to death by everyone who counts, our economy is crashing down around us, and now we announce to the world that we insist on keeping this destructive policy in place.
Carny and his band of not-so-merry outlaws keep poking a stick in the eye of the 20 foot tall mastodon to our south. It's not in Donald Trump's eye, it's in the eye of the United States.
I suspect that the mastodon will soon remind Mr. Carny that Canada is just a small, soon-to-be-poverty-stricken, beaver.
If the government (no insult to real governments) negotiated openly in good faith there would be a deal. Problem is the so called government does not want a deal. Keeping things off the table is but one example of this.