Premier David Eby is pushing back against the U.S. President Donald Trump’s rhetoric around U.S.-Canada dairy trade, as the province marks this year’s B.C. Dairy Day.
Eby and Agriculture Minister Lana Popham doled out cups of strawberry and salted caramel ice cream from a truck outside the B.C. Legislature today.
The sweet stunt was billed as a celebration of the dairy industry’s contribution to the province’s food security and economy.
Eby says “[U.S. President] Donald Trump has come after and threatened our dairy farmers. He has said terrible and untrue things about our remarkable supply management program.”
Canada’s supply management policies allow farmers in certain sectors to limit the supply of their products to keep prices more stable.
Eby points to the soaring price of eggs in the U.S., saying “Americans are being gouged by giant corporations.”
Trump has previously slammed Canada for placing what he claims are excessive tariffs on dairy. He has pointed to a more than 200 per cent tariff on U.S. dairy imports under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement. However, those high tariffs only kick in after a certain annual threshold is surpassed for U.S. dairy sales to Canada.
B.C. Conservative MLA and agriculture critic Ian Paton attended today’s event, noting he is a third-generation dairy farmer. He told the crowd at the legislature today that British Columbia is the most expensive province in Canada to be a dairy farmer, due to high transportation and feed costs.
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