Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

The United States has repeatedly indicated that a key tension in NAFTA renegotiations is Canada’s continued protection of dairy, poultry and egg producers. These protectionist policies, known as supply management, were also an irritant in the Trans-Pacific free trade negotiations. The question for Canadians is why broad trade agreements, which benefit almost all Canadians, are being jeopardized to continue to protect a small subset of farmers in Canada—estimated at 13,500 nationwide. Supply management is a set of government-imposed production quotas and structured prices to limit domestic supply while impeding consumer access to foreign imports through tariffs. The outcome arguable is, reduced choice and higher prices for consumers, and higher revenues for producers. The speaker will contend that an often overlooked aspect of this protectionism is that it disproportionately affects the poor. Policies that raise prices of milk, cheese, eggs and chicken affect low-income families, and those with children, to