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Grassley disappointed in USTR’s slow response to Canadian trade issue

Iowa’s senior Senator Chuck Grassley is pleased the U.S. Trade Representative has asked for a trade dispute settlement panel to review Canada’s dairy tariff rate quota practices but he says he’s disappointed it took this long. Grassley says, “What (Robert) Lighthizer did would have led to consultation if they didn’t make the changes right away. This Ambassador Tai hasn’t been quite as aggressive as Lighthizer, and that’s a little disappointing to me.”

Grassley told reporters Tuesday the trade issues with Canada could have been dealt with sooner. “A week ago when we had, by Zoom, the annual, probably could be the 60th annual Canadian-American Interparliamentary, I brought it up then but just that I was dissatisfied that Canada hadn’t moved to do what they said they were going to do in the USMCA.”

The U.S. officially requested a three-person review panel claiming Canada is setting aside pools of its dairy tariff rate quotas for certain processors, effectively keeping high-value U.S. products out of the Canadian market.