While the dairy industry was warning about concessions forced upon Canada in the new North American free trade deal text last week, the federal government quietly awarded Canadian dairy processors almost exclusive rights to import nearly all of the dairy products set to arrive soon from countries like New Zealand under the new Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership.

That means that in a few weeks, when Canadian consumers have the option to purchase more foreign dairy products, Canada's dairy industry could still get a cut of the profits — at least temporarily — as it imports and then markets foreign dairy alongside products made with Canadian milk.

"This is a support for the dairy farmers through a roundabout means," said Karl Littler, senior vice-president of public affairs for the Retail Council of Canada.

"(The government) will, of course, deny that until they're blue in the face."

The revised North American trade agreement — dubbed the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) by Ottawa and signed by the leaders of all three countries last week — is the third major trade agreement in a row to hand over a share of Canada's dairy market to foreign milk products...

This was excerpted from the 5 December 2018 edition of CBC News.