Canada and the United States are once again negotiating under the threat of tariffs. Washington has temporarily postponed a proposed 50% tariff on roughly $20 billion in Canadian goods while the two countries attempt to finalize a broader trade arrangement.
Dairy access, along with American alcohol sales in Canada, has emerged as a central U.S. grievance. The threatened tariffs are excessive, and their legal justification is debatable. But Ottawa cannot dismiss every American complaint as protectionist fiction. On dairy, Washington is asking Canada to demonstrate that the market access it promised when CUSMA took effect in 2020 is real.
