Wellington –
New Zealand’s government announced Friday that a long-running trade dispute with Canada over dairy access to the North American country has escalated.
New Zealand Trade Minister Todd McRae says the New Zealand government will begin forced negotiations with the Canadian government and other members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade agreement over the dairy dispute with Canada. He said he had notified him that he had done so.
These must be started within 15 days.
New Zealand launched a claim against Canada in May 2022, alleging that Ottawa’s implementation of dairy tariff quotas under the trade agreement violates the terms of the agreement.
In particular, New Zealand alleges that although Canada agreed to grant foreign companies access to some dairy markets through a tariff quota system, it was actually unfairly allocating some of them to domestic companies. I am doing it.
“In principle, the New Zealand government expects trading partners to treat exporters fairly and within the terms of the agreement,” Mr McCrae said in a statement.
“Canada has not done anything like that with respect to dairy quotas negotiated and agreed to with New Zealand,” he said.
Five other CPTPP member states, including Australia, Japan, Mexico, Peru and Singapore, are also joining New Zealand in the dispute, with both New Zealand and Canada expected to find a favorable arbitration panel in their favor in September 2023. he claimed.
The Canadian High Commission in Wellington did not respond to a request for comment.
New Zealand said Friday that Canada failed to comply with the findings within a reasonable time.
According to the New Zealand Government, this is the first dispute undertaken by New Zealand under a free trade agreement and the first dispute undertaken by the parties under the CPTPP.
(Reporting by Lucy Kramer; Editing by Jamie Freed)