Trade remedies between the U.S. and Canada are ongoing, according to Cassandra Kuball, vice president at Washington, D.C.-based Michael Torrey Associates and federal affairs team member for Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative.
Kuball, who spoke to Edge and Dairy Business Association members at the 2021 World Dairy Expo, also keeps an eye on international trade policy in her role as an advisor on the Animal and Animal Products Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee guiding the USDA and USTR on trade negotiations.
The U.S. is charging Canada for not fully adhering to its commitments under the USMCA with dairy tariff rate quotas. The process for remedying this includes setting up a panel, which is underway. The panel will review everything and then will come out with a report. The process is long, but is currently on schedule.
Looking South, the U.S. and Mexico are having differences over cheese specifications. Kuball explains the U.S. disagrees with Mexican specifications because specifications that are not the same between the two could put up a road block for U.S. product going into Mexico. It’s already been a barrier for some U.S. cheese, but Kuball says this issue alone is not responsible for the drop in cheese exports to Mexico.
In her role in federal affairs for Edge, she says she’s encouraging the Biden administration and Congress to look at new market access, including joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which is the new Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) of which the U.S. pulled out of during the Trump administration. Kuball argues that joining the CPTPP would help build markets in southeast Asia.
