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Reed Issues Statement About Dairy Farmers and the New Trade Deal

October 1, 2018

WASHINGTON, DC – From Congressman Tom Reed:

Today, Rep. Tom Reed announced the United States and Canada have negotiated a new trade agreement, pending congressional approval, to eliminate trade barriers for farmers and improve dairy market access.
This deal with Canada completes a new United States, Canada and Mexico trade deal – formerly known as NAFTA.
“This proposed deal brings our trading standards with Mexico and Canada out of the dark ages and into the 21st century and allows our dairy farmers and workers a fair shake at success,” Tom said. “We look forward to further reviewing this deal to verify all of our local farmers, manufacturers and workers are treated fairly.”
Tom has been an unrelenting advocate to level the scales of trade for the dairy industry going back to 2013.
Canada has strictly controlled imports for decades to limit the supply of milk in the country. Recently, as milk production in Canada has grown, it created the Class 7 pricing system to dump surplus milk proteins onto global markets, in direct competition with exports from the United States and other nations.
Benefits of the new NAFTA agreement with Canada for our local dairy farmers include:
• Gives farmers much need relief by providing important new access for dairy products.
• Eliminates the unfair “Class 7” program which allowed Canada to undersell the United States’ dairy products.
For manufacturers the benefits the new NAFTA agreement with Canada include:
• Incentivizes billions of dollars in additional United States manufacturing by requiring 75 percent of auto parts be produced in North America.
• Supports better jobs for hard working people by requiring 40 to 45 percent of automotive content be made by workers earning an average base wage of at least $16 per hour.


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