Quote:
Originally Posted by FlameOn
There are a lot of things that don't get taken into the account there, much stricter labour/filtering regulations in the Canadian market, lower input fuel costs, lower American labour costs, and also general American government farm subsidies that encourage large industrial farming practices to overproduce and flood the market. ala corn and soy subsidies which we do not start trades wars with the US over. All of those need to be taken into consideration when looking at the "cost" and need to be taken into account in trade negotiations.
Like others have said, is $0.50 more for a carton of milk worth the livelihoods of over 25k+ plus a multi-billion dollar industry for an inferior corporate industrial run US subsidized product? Especially when the US already maintains a huge dairy trade surplus. This is not account for all the secondary rural jobs that would be lost as a result of farms going under either. System can definitely be fixed from a supply management standpoint, but on our terms, not at the end of a US dictated gun barrel.
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I think the notion that milk isn't produced by large corporate farms in Canada is a pretty big falsehood here. This is Canadians corporations/co-ops vs US ones.
Also the notion that it's only 50 cents per carton more so it's worth it is terrible logic. If it's 50 cents per 4 litres you are paying a 14% tax on your goods to support and industry. Would you be in favour of 14% tax to subsidize Canadian goods in general?
That said I agree with you that Canada shouldn't be negotiating under threat and trading our subsidies for theirs is essential in any trade negotiation