The federal government has betrayed Canada's dairy processors by allowing the United States to activate the new North American trade deal on July 1 — a month earlier than the industry was expecting, the Opposition leader in the Senate said Tuesday.
Sen. Don Plett warned the country's 470 processing facilities, an industry that employs more than 24,000 people and contributes $18 billion annually to the Canadian economy, stand to lose upwards of $100 million if the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement takes effect as scheduled.
That's because the dairy industry's "quota year" for a number of key products begins in August, and many of the terms of the agreement are tied directly to the production calendar. Enacting the deal in July would mean that Year 1 — a 12-month period the industry was counting on to adjust to the new landscape — only lasts 31 days...
This was excerpted from the 28 April 2020 edition of CBC News.