OTTAWA—Canada’s envoy to Washington has shot back at criticism by President Donald Trump and U.S. milk producers, saying the facts don’t support a charge that the Canadian dairy industry is to blame for the woes of some American farmers.
“Canada does not accept the contention that Canada’s dairy policies are the cause of financial loss for dairy farmers in the United States. The facts do not bear this out,” Ambassador David MacNaughton said in a letter to the governors of Wisconsin and New York.
The letter was released on the night of April 18 in rebuttal to Trump’s criticism of Canada earlier in the day. The U.S. president’s surprise decision to call out Canada by name put dairy farmers north of the border on notice that they are in America’s fair-trade sights.
Trump launched his broadside after a brewing trade spat that has seen the U.S. dairy lobby accuse Canada of “systemic disregard” of its trade obligations, while the Canadian industry accused its American rival of “scapegoating.”
Trump also signalled he wants to do more than simply tweak the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying he is looking for “very big changes” to the trilateral pact that includes Mexico, or else he will scrap it once and for all.
