Thursday, 23 January 2025 08:55

Editorial: O Canada

Written by  Staff Reporters

OPINION: The Canadian government's love affair with its lifestyle dairy farmers has got it into trouble once again.

This time the Agriculture Ministers of New Zealand, Australia and the US are being asked by their respective dairy processing organisations to lean heavily on Canada to stop it selling its heavily subsidised dairy products on the world market, a move which is distorting and reducing returns to honest dairy producing countries such as NZ.

This is a significant move and shows Canada that it now has some formidable opponents.

The Canadian dairy industry is small by our standards; its average herd size is in the 80s. But as they say, empty vessels make the most noise and Canadian dairy vessels make the most noise and Canadian dairy farmers have long done that and captured the ear of successive politically fragile governments, to the extent that when the cow bells ring, the government goes head over heels to help.

This sort of behaviour is not limited to Canada. We have seen it in Europe too where farmers hold considerable political power.

However, Canada has always professed to be a free trader and signed up to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) which requires it to do just that. The problem is that when Canada signed up to the CPTPP they were being blatantly dishonest as it seems they were never going to stop indulging their lifestyle dairy farmers.

In doing this, Canada has gone from being a respected free trader and supporter of rules-based trade to being a born-again rogue protectionist colony -  a very unstatesman-like action.

In theory, NZ and Canada should be friends and to be fair on most issues we are and will remain so. But their antiquated return to protectionism continues to sour that relationship.

More like this

Will Trump get involved in NZ's dairy dispute?

Canada's blatant manipulation of international trade rules around the export of subsidised dairy products is likely to escalate further with the new Trump administration now in the White House.

Editorial: Goodbye 2024

OPINION: In two weeks we'll bid farewell to 2024. Dubbed by some as the toughest season in a generation, many farmers would be happy to put the year behind them.

Featured

Milk company launches new round of grants

The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) is launching a new round of grants to support projects aimed at enhancing dairy farming sustainability via the a2 Farm Sustainability Fund.

National

Synlait sweetens milk supply deal

Canterbury milk processor Synlait is confident of retaining its farmer supplier base following a turnaround in its financial performance.

Optimism in the air

Ag First chief executive James Allen says dairy farmer optimism is on the rise.

Machinery & Products

New distributor for Aussie equipment

Australian agricultural equipment distributor, Waringa Distribution, has increased its support to South Island farmers and contractors with the appointment of…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Bovaer's fate

OPINION: The fate of methane inhibitor Bovaer in NZ farming is still up in the air.

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter