Despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprise attack on the Canadian dairy industry on Tuesday, dairy farmers in New Brunswick say they have confidence in Canada’s supply management system.
READ MORE: Why did Donald Trump attack the Canadian dairy industry?
Michael and Debbie Mullin, who have been tending to their cows for over 30 years, say they’re not worried about the future of their industry despite Trump’s remarks.
“We have a really good system,” Debbie said. “It works really well, it provides a stable supply of milk, it supplies us with a stable income.”
In Canada, through supply management, quotas for milk are set for producers and demand is met with little surplus.
“Because the American system is a free market system, the dairy farm that was producing that product doesn’t need that milk anymore,” Mullin said. “So rather then say to everybody, you need to cut back your production a little bit, they selected 70 or however many farmers it is and said to them, we don’t want your milk anymore.”
“In the Canadian system, if there was a change in the request for milk we would all share in that. So it would be spread over the whole Canadian industry … So it wouldn’t hit us the same way as it does the Wisconsin farmers,” added Mullin
New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant said he’s convinced the province’s trade relationship with the neighbouring country is on solid ground.
READ MORE: Donald Trump takes aim at Canada’s dairy industry
“There’s nothing at the border stopping the dairy industry from the U.S. exporting to this country, we have to make sure we have a good discussion about trade with the US, and we have to make sure that it’s base on facts,” Gallant said.
“We didn’t change the rules, we didn’t change the tariffs, we didn’t change the borders, we didn’t change anything except added a class so that our milk can be considered a product now.”
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