Two US dairy groups have pledged to work with the Trump administration for a “modernised” North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that “safeguards open trade with Mexico and confronts increasingly protectionist dairy policies by Canada”.

The move follows last month’s announcement by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue that Congress had been formally notified of the administration’s intention to start NAFTA renegotiation talks – amid earlier calls from the dairy sector to examine Canada’s “protectionist” trade policies.

The US Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) told the US Trade Representative “the existing North American dairy landscape is one in which US dairy products flow relatively unhindered to Mexico, but are curtailed by Canada’s increasing use of policy tools violating international trade obligations”.

President and CEO of USDEC Tom Vilsack said: “We agree that NAFTA could use a facelift and our industry looks forward to working with the Trump administration to explore ways to preserve and strengthen it.”

NMPF’s president and CEO Jim Mulhern said: “The relationship between the dairy sectors of the US, Mexico and Canada is of such great importance to all of our nations that we need to devote the time and effort to make it better. A modernised NAFTA agreement must preserve the open and dependable trade relationship with Mexico, and remove remaining barriers to trade that were not adequately addressed in the original agreement.”

Separately, the US Grocery Manufacturers Association said “we understand NAFTA is more than 20 years old and can be modernised to further strengthen competitiveness and drive US growth and job creation”.

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Last month, the US United Fresh Produce Association backed calls to modernise NAFTA and ensure a revised agreement “does away with unfair, discriminatory or non-science based regulations that hinder the industry”.