A group of US Congress members have written a letter to Gary Doar, Canada’s ambassador to the US, pressing Canada to allow more imports of US dairy products as part of theTrans Pacific Partnership(TPP) trade talks.

The letter stated if Canada cannot provide more dairy access, it risks being left out of the Pacific Rim trade agreement in the final stages of the negotiations.

The US National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and US Dairy Export Council (USDEC) supported the letter spearheaded by Representativess Reid Ribble (Republican, Wisconsin), Ron Kind (Democrat, Wisconsin), David Valadao (Republican, California) and Suzan Delbene (Democrat, Washington).

NMPF and USDEC said the legislator’s message is a vital element to achieving balanced market access results through TPP.

If US dairy farmers are ultimately asked to grapple with greater competition under this agreement, it is only right that they be able to have comparable product opportunities to tap into Canada as well as Japan, they argued.

USDEC President Tom Suber said his members had hoped TPP would eliminate all dairy tariffs in the region, but that now appears unlikely.

He added: “Despite this, we see the prospect for ample market access gain, particularly into Japan and Canada. We hope to support a final agreement that ensures the US gains at least as much increased dairy market access to these markets for major dairy commodities as it grants to our largest competitor in this agreement.”

The dairy groups said the final agreement must include net trade benefits for export of major dairy commodities into Japan and Canada, TPP’s major dairy import destinations, in comparison with new dairy access into the US for New Zealand, the world’s largest dairy exporter, for each of these products.

Canada, being the only major dairy producer with a milk quota still in place, will be very reluctant to open doors to US dairy imports, except for very specific items.