Maybe not so much on milk because the retailer eats a low margin on it with higher margins on other products, but you really feel it on dairy-heavy products like butter or cheese.
There’s a reason why the import duty on cheese averages 250%. They’ve got a cartel to protect from the consumer choice evils of the free market.
And then there’s the underdevelopment of the dairy industry as a whole. Canada exports grain to other countries to feed their cows instead of having more cows here and exporting value-added dairy.
> There’s a reason why the import duty on cheese averages 250%. They’ve got a cartel to protect from the consumer choice evils of the free market.
That's one way to choose to look at it. Protectionism has two sides. If you allow foreign imports to undercut the price of domestic goods that will filter down to the folks producing it, and hurt them too. Competition is good for the consumer but not the producer. I think we often forget that the consumer and producer and usually the same group of people.
Looks like 52% of all dairy farms in Canada are sole proprietorships. Partnerships were 23%. Another 22% were family corporations. [1]
Those folks collect more money as a result of keeping the market closed and live better as a result.
I'm generally pretty pro free-trade, except in agriculture.
If you are trying to build a dairy market that values and seeks to grow small producers then reducing competition helps achieve that as they are not necessarily competitive. You would force consolidation among independent producers by opening up the border for these ag products. I don't think industrial scale farming as a necessity is good for the animals, the farmers, the environment or the country, and I'm willing to pay more for that.
The US is a ruthless competitor and has some pretty shady agricultural practices - especially dumping corn. [2] Frankly any edge Canada is able to retain against its much larger, strong-armed neighbor to the south is likely to benefit Canadians.
> Agricultural “dumping” – the practice of exporting commodities at prices below the cost of production -- can be devastating for farmers in importing countries, especially in low-income countries with little power to use trade rules to defend their markets. It is unfair competition for producers in other exporting countries. And by encouraging overproduction in the U.S., it traps U.S. producers, too, in a never-ending need for higher yields, or bigger farms, or both. [2]
> Third, dumping creates an economic environment that undermines the realization of environmental objectives. [2]
That's not what I want. I can see your argument, too, but I do respectfully disagree.
Sure, but unlike say NZ, they're literally adjacent meaning that the cost of transport plays a much smaller role and the barriers to entry are smaller - thus increasing the risk.
> Anyways, we have tools against dumping if it does happen.
Indeed! Protectionism and protectionist policies. Dumping would be solely good for Canadian consumers and solely bad for Canadian producers no? If the US government wants to subsidize corn to below the cost of production and throw it over the border, why stop them? It seems like my argument just taken to an extreme.
> Competition is fantastic for the producer: it stops them from getting lazy.
I think we broadly agree except I don't believe in industrializing agriculture unless strictly necessary. Industrial agriculture is bad for everyone, and the environment, IMO.
> Canada could have been a dairy export juggernaut like New Zealand, but instead Canada kept itself underdeveloped in dairy.
I personally do not desire this outcome, but I respect your position.
There’s a reason why the import duty on cheese averages 250%. They’ve got a cartel to protect from the consumer choice evils of the free market.
And then there’s the underdevelopment of the dairy industry as a whole. Canada exports grain to other countries to feed their cows instead of having more cows here and exporting value-added dairy.