The U.S. dairy sector is urging Washington to take a firmer stance with Canada and Mexico as the countries prepare for the 2026 review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). In testimony delivered Tuesday before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) called for a more assertive approach to ensuring that the pact delivers the market access and regulatory certainty the industry expected when the agreement came into force.
Shawna Morris, executive vice-president for trade policy and global affairs at both NMPF and USDEC, told USTR officials that dairy producers and exporters continue to face barriers that undermine USMCA’s intent. “USMCA is a critical agreement for the U.S. dairy community,” said Morris at the hearing. “It’s crucial that the Review address targeted implementation problems with Mexico and Canada to create an even stronger agreement that will be up to the task of facilitating U.S.-Mexico-Canadian trade for years to come.”
Her remarks signal the industry’s growing frustration with what it views as uneven compliance by the United States’ two continental partners. For Canada, the central concern remains its administration of dairy tariff-rate quotas (TRQs), a system that determines which importers receive access to tariff-reduced volumes of foreign dairy products. U.S. producers have long argued that Canada allocates an outsized share of these quotas to domestic processors, limiting the commercial opportunities for U.S. suppliers that USMCA was designed to create.
Morris told USTR that Canada’s approach “denies U.S. exporters the meaningful market access guaranteed under USMCA,” pointing to several years of disputes and panel rulings that, in the industry’s view, have not yet translated into practical change. She also criticized what she described as Canada’s efforts to sidestep USMCA rules governing dairy protein exports. According to NMPF and USDEC, those workarounds have allowed Canadian firms to ship low-priced dairy proteins abroad, placing competitive pressure on U.S. products in North American and global markets.
Mexico—the United States’ largest dairy export market—faces concerns of its own. Morris urged the administration to press Mexican authorities to uphold commitments related to common cheese names, including terms such as “parmesan” and “provolone.” The dairy industry fears that ongoing trade negotiations between Mexico and the European Union could result in new restrictions on the use of generic cheese names, potentially blocking U.S. exporters from marketing established products under widely recognized terms.
The industry views protection for common food names as a critical component of its broader trade agenda. U.S. officials and dairy groups have repeatedly pushed back against the EU’s geographical indication strategy, which seeks exclusive rights to certain terms in foreign markets. Should Mexico adopt more stringent naming rules, U.S. exporters warn they could face significant commercial setbacks at a time when dairy shipments to the country have reached record levels.
Morris’s appearance before USTR builds on a sustained advocacy campaign by NMPF and USDEC. The groups filed extensive joint comments with USTR on Oct. 31 and provided earlier testimony and submissions to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) as part of a Section 332 investigation into global competitiveness in nonfat milk solids. That inquiry, requested by USTR, is examining trade dynamics in the dairy protein sector and assessing how foreign policies—including Canada’s export practices—affect U.S. market performance.
A report from the ITC is expected in spring 2026, and industry groups say its findings could play a significant role in shaping U.S. negotiating priorities during the USMCA review. Morris emphasized that the review period offers a pivotal opportunity to address structural issues that, if left unresolved, could limit the agreement’s ability to support long-term cross-border dairy trade.
For Canada, the testimony underscores pressures likely to build as the review approaches. Ottawa has faced repeated U.S. challenges to its TRQ administration under USMCA’s dispute settlement mechanism, with mixed outcomes. While Canada has made some adjustments, U.S. industry groups maintain that those changes remain insufficient to meet the letter—or the spirit—of the agreement. The sector is now calling for stronger enforcement measures and potential revisions to ensure market access commitments are fully realised.
As North American governments prepare for the review process, the dairy industry’s message to USTR is clear: without meaningful compliance and targeted reforms, USMCA risks falling short of its economic promise. The testimony signals that U.S. dairy producers will be pushing for a tougher stance in the months ahead, framing the agreement’s future as a test of North America’s ability to maintain a stable and predictable trade environment for one of the continent’s most integrated agricultural sectors.
