Economics

Canada Puts Global Trade Deal at Risk to Defend Family Dairies

Cows stand in the milking parlor at a dairy farm in Lynden, Canada.

Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

On paper, it’s not a fair fight: a dozen nations representing 40 percent of the world’s economic output versus 12,000 Canadian dairy farms.

But Canada’s dairies are protected by some of the world’s most restrictive agricultural trade barriers, which helped to stall talks last month just as negotiators were closing in on a trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.