According to Trade Minister Mary Ng, Canada has won a trade dispute lawsuit against New Zealand, which claimed Ottawa was unjustly limiting access to the domestic market for dairy goods.
New Zealand has requested that a dispute panel be established under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a major trade agreement, to handle Auckland’s complaint.
“Canada is very pleased with the outcome of the panel’s report, which represents a clear victory,” Ng said in a statement.
New Zealand and the United States have often protested that Canada is failing to satisfy its duties under multiple trade treaties to open its market to foreign manufacturers.
They claim that, although Canada committed to provide foreign corporations some dairy market access via a system of tariff-rate quotas, it was in reality unfairly assigning some of them to local enterprises.
“The panel has made a significant finding by recognizing Canada’s sole discretion to set tariff-rate quota allocations policies,” Ng added.
She also restated Canada’s commitment to defending the national supply management system, which protects dairy producers via output caps and hefty import tariffs.
