CANADA: WTO rules that dairy industry must reform its export subsidies system

By just-food.com editorial team | 1 August 2002

A World Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes panel has ruled that Canada has failed to comply with an earlier ruling ordering it to reform its collective dairy marketing systems, so that its exporters do not enjoy subsidies on world markets.

The latest panel has ruled that through its CEM (Commercial Export Milk) scheme and its Special Milk Class 5(d) system, Canada is "providing export subsidies" over and above the liberalisation commitments it has made in the WTO Agreement on Agriculture regarding exports of cheese and "other dairy products."

The decision opens the way for the US and New Zealand - who brought the case - to take retaliatory action, through special tariffs, against Canadian exports, unless Ottawa backs down and reforms its dairy marketing systems.

By just-food.com correspondent Keith Nuthall