In an interview last week with NexStar Media, Michael Dykes, D.V.M., IDFA president and CEO, amplified IDFA’s ongoing efforts to call for a level playing field for dairy in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In the TV segment shared with viewers in New York and Pennsylvania, Dykes and Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., called on U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and the administration to address Canada’s trade-distorting Class 7 pricing scheme in the modernized NAFTA.

Canada implemented the Class 7 pricing 15 months ago. It artificially lowers milk ingredient prices and incentivizes the substitution of domestic Canadian dairy ingredients for imported ingredients. It also promotes the dumping of Canadian proteins onto world markets.

“They are selling skim milk powders on the world market below the cost of production,” said Dykes in the segment. “We have skim milk powders that we need to sell in the world market – and now we're competing with a country – Canada – which has traditionally not been a competitor.”

Tenney said, “We estimate that, over five years, the United States is going to lose a billion dollars” as a result of Canada’s Class 7 pricing policy.

Dykes and Tenney stressed that addressing the pricing policy through NAFTA is essential for the U.S. dairy industry.

View the NY video and article here. The interview also appeared online for readers in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

For more information on NAFTA, contact Beth Hughes, IDFA director of international affairs, at bhughes@idfa.org.