Imposing Duties on Canadian Dairy Over Trade Discrimination

Trump imposes additional duties on Canadian dairy imports due to trade discrimination.

[IMPOSING ADDITIONAL DUTIES TO OFFSET CANADIAN DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THE COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES WITH RESPECT TO DAIRY] BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1.  Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1338) (section 338) empowers the President to, among other things, impose duties on imports of a foreign country to offset the burden or disadvantage from a foreign country’s discrimination against or unequal imposition on the commerce of the United States. 2.  Canada, through discrimination or an unreasonable and unequal imposition, treats the commerce of certain foreign countries more favorably than commerce of the United States with respect to dairy and in turn, places a burden and disadvantage on the commerce of the United States.  Specifically, Canada denies the commerce of the United States benefits that Canada affords to materially similar dairy commerce from certain other foreign countries and thus unreasonably burdens and disadvantages U.S. commerce compared to the commerce of certain other foreign countries. 3.  Canada maintains a tariff-rate quota (TRQ) on cheeses of all types under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) as well as a TRQ on cheese of all types under the Canada-European Union (EU) Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).  The TRQs provide duty-free access for the covered dairy products up to specified annual quantities (in‑quota quantities) and apply a customs duty to imports that exceed the respective in-quota quantities. 4.  To access the TRQs under the USMCA and the CETA, Canada’s dairy TRQ allocation measures establish eligibility criteria.  But Canada does not have the same eligibility criteria for the USMCA and the CETA, disfavoring the commerce of the United States.  While Canada’s eligibility criteria for the USMCA dairy TRQs — and specifically, the cheeses of all types TRQ — do not allow retailers to obtain and use TRQ quantities, the eligibility criteria for the CETA do grant retailers access to the TRQ quantity for cheese of all types. 5.  By making retailers ineligible to use the USMCA TRQ for cheeses of all types, Canada discriminates against U.S. goods that are similar to EU goods that are entered pursuant to the CETA cheese of all types TRQ.  Canada thus denies to the United States the favorable treatment that Canada provides to the EU and its member States.  This discrimination impedes market access into Canada and results in lost sales or revenues for U.S. dairy producers and exporters, among other things.  The United States, U.S. businesses and workers, and U.S. commerce are negatively affected by Canada’s discriminatory practices.   6.  Accordingly, pursuant to section 338, I find as a fact that Canada is discriminating in fact against the commerce of the United States through Canada’s TRQ allocation measures imposed on U.S. cheeses of all types under the USMCA, as compared to Canada’s TRQ allocation measures imposed on EU cheese of all types under t