Date

 

Name,

Address

Address

 

Dear Minister,

I’m writing to you today on behalf of my company, [NAME], to share our serious concerns about the allocation of dairy tariff rate quota (TRQ) related to the implementation of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

[COMPANY NAME] employs [NUMBER] hard-working Canadians in facilities in [LOCATION(S)]. We are proud to be a member of [this community / these communities] and a significant contributor to the Canadian economy.

Like others in the dairy sector, we were deeply disappointed by your government’s decision to allocate to dairy processors less than half of the cheese TRQ available with the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). This decision resulted in compensation going to industries that weren’t negatively impacted by CETA.

As your officials are already aware, CETA dairy TRQs have not been fully filled, or have been filled with varieties of cheese already widely available in Canada. This has negatively impacted dairy processors and brought no benefit to Canadian consumers who were promised lower prices and a wider selection of European products.

There is simply too much at stake for the Canadian government to make these same errors when allocating CPTPP dairy TRQ.

As an industry, dairy processors have invested more than $7.5 billion in our businesses since 2008. But, the market access that Canada has granted with CETA, CPTPP and now the new agreement with the United States, represents a combined lost return on investments of $2 billion for dairy processors. Businesses must see a return on investment; this is how they grow, contribute to the Canadian economy, and provide good jobs to middle-class Canadians.

Dairy processors will not benefit from CPTPP or USMCA. So, we hope that your government learns from past mistakes and ensures that compensation goes to those who will suffer losses and have a vested interest in dairy market growth. The first step in correcting the course we are currently on is through the allocation of all available CPTPP dairy TRQ to dairy processors. This will benefit our companies, the farmers from which we purchase milk, and the hard-working Canadians we employ.  

Regards,

[NAME]

[TITLE]

Cc. [All MPs of the ridings where your company has dairy processing facilities]