DPAC and its partners, the Canadian Poultry and Egg Processing Council (CPEPC) and provincial dairy councils, call on the government to finally act on its commitments to compensate supply managed processors for the impacts of trade agreements.
Canada’s supply management system has been weakened because of trade agreements signed in the past five years: the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific (CPTPP) and the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). Combined these agreements have provided trade partners with 10% access to Canada’s domestic dairy market.
The need for compensation programs was further highlighted by recent data showing that growth in the dairy processing industry has slowed to less than 1% annually in recent years. Once one of the strongest performing processing industries, dairy processing is now facing negative growth due to market instability caused by trade agreements.
Market uncertainty created by first CETA, then CPTPP and CUSMA, has halted investment and growth in Canada’s dairy processing industry. In the past seven years, real GDP in the dairy processing industry has decreased by 1%. This is in stark contrast to the greater food manufacturing sector which saw real GDP growth increase by 16.2% during this same period. Dairy processing is actually the only food processing industry in Canada exhibiting negative GDP growth over the period (see graph below).
Looking for more information on the impacts of trade agreements on Canada’s dairy processors?
Tell the Government that Processors need to be compensated for the impacts of trade agreements.
Send a letter to Ministers Freeland, Bibeau and Ng by visiting www.supportprocessors.ca and spread the word online using #supportprocessors and by sharing DPAC’s posts on social media.