WASHINGTON -- The United States said yesterday that it has reached a settlement with Canada in a long-running trade dispute involving Canadian dairy exports.
Last December, the United States and New Zealand won a World Trade Organization case over the issue. The WTO ruled that Canada was unfairly subsidizing its dairy exports.
Canadian officials said at the time that they would comply with the ruling. Under terms of the settlement, Canada has agreed to eliminate subsidies provided under the Commercial Export Milk program.
When the ruling was handed down, Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew said that compliance should not have broad repercussions for the Canadian dairy industry.
Canada has agreed to halt exports of any subsidized milk or cream to the United States beginning this month, and to make sure that subsidized exports of butter and skim milk powder remain within WTO-approved levels, according to a U.S. fact sheet on the pact.
"This is great news for American dairy farmers and processors," U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said in a statement.
"Canada's dairy subsidies have hurt U.S. producers and we are pleased that the WTO process has resulted in a positive solution," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said.
The United States had argued that government programs gave export subsidies to Canadian food processors and farmers that were above world trade rule levels.
The WTO said Canada's Commercial Export Milk program, which sold discounted milk to processors, represented an illegal export subsidy under WTO rules.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. NoNonsense English offers this material non-commercially for research and educational purposes. I believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, i.e. the media service or newspaper which first published the article online and which is indicated at the top of the article unless otherwise specified.