USMCA Dairy Ruling
This first dispute settlement panel brought under the USMCA has ended in favor of the US in a dispute over dairy with Canada.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack says the decision means the USMCA agreement with Canada regarding dairy exports should now be enforced the way it was intended.
Vilsack: “ When the agreement was reached, the US Dairy industry believed in good faith that they would have greater access to the Canadian market by virtue of increased tariff-rate quotas. The Canadians utilized a process that made it more difficult for those quotas to be met for dairy products. And as a result, the agreement in our view was not being enforced the way it was intended.”
While the Southeast isn’t the top dairy-producing region of the US, this decision may still have significant impacts on regional dairy production.
There are about 125,000 dairy cows in Florida that collectively produce about 300 million gallons of milk a year. Lafayette and Okeechobee are Florida’s leading dairy counties. Florida Dairy Farmers says operations are primarily owned and operated by second and third-generation farmers.
Georgia currently has 112 dairy farms and is home to over 81,000 dairy cows.
Each Georgia dairy cow has an economic impact of $12,666*.
Georgia’s dairy industry contributes close to $1.03 Billion to Georgia’s economy each year.
A typical Georgia farm has a herd of 623 dairy cows according to the Georgia Milk Producers
