Impact of trade deal on cheese

The EU pact increases the import quota for European cheese from 20-thousand tonnes to 37-thousand. And that has Canadian producers concerned the deal will eat into their market.

Melissa Raftis has local reaction.

I spoke with Robin Ghosh, the General Manager at Salerno Dairy in Hamilton. And he says our government has basically sacrificed the dairy industry in order to get a deal to allow more exports of beef and pork to Europe. While the specific details have yet to be worked out, Ghosh foresees many small to medium sized businesses eventually shutting their doors. He says his own business, which employs about 200 people is also expected to take a hit, as they won’t be able to compete with European products which are typically cheaper and offer more selection. Ghosh says 80% of Canada’s milk is produced in Quebec and Ontario so they’ll be the hardest hit by this deal: “In any trade deal, you got to give up something to get something. This time we did give up the dairy to get the beef. So there must be a reason. Whatever. I don’t know. It could be that it’s pure political. Could be that he’s from the west, Harper himself. So possibly he looked after more the beef side of it than the dairy. Who knows but it doesn’t make sense to the industry at all.”

Ghosh says he feels like the diary industry wasn’t given enough opportunity to lend a voice to the discussions. And now they’ll have to wait until the trade comes into effect before they’ll know the true impact of this deal.