The short answer: Canada has a better system in place to protect consumers, farmers, and food quality.
Canada's superior dairy system is one of Trump's supposed beefs with the Canada-United-States-Mexico-Agreement (CUSMA), which as you all know, Trump personally instigated, negotiated, and signed in 2018.
The U.S. has an open dairy market with minimal regulation. This leads to the rapid spread of disease, frequent crashes and hefty federal bailouts. In the United States, the Dairy Price Support Program subsidizes their dairy farmers and they also have a series of bailout bills like the 2018 Farm Bill for Dairy and Livestock. The USA doled out a subsidy of $32 billion to farms in 2018, $22.6 billion in 2019, 35.1 billion in 2020... you get the idea.
Canada uses supply management for dairy production, so our dairy is better quality, with fewer supply chain & disease issues (again - this is why our eggs are still affordable!)
In CUSMA, the U.S. agreed to limit their dairy exports to Canada so they don’t crush our Canadian dairy producers. Only when they go OVER THE QUOTA, do they pay the higher tariffs. So normally Canada has no tariffs on US dairy unless they go over the very reasonable quota - unlike Trump's misleading nonsense you might be hearing.
Canada's Supply Management means we produce a particular amount of dairy each year to ensure that our farms can be profitable and Canadian consumers have access to a "high-quality, secure" supply at stable prices without shortages.
Canada's system means we can have many small and medium dairy farms. The USA's system means enormous mega farms and the death of family farms. The mega farms are susceptible to the rapid spread of disease like Bird Flu and massive culls which lead to price surges.
Musk's DOGE has cut back funding for the USA's disease prevention, reporting, and food safety which is going to be a calamity. No Canadian in their right mind would want American dairy (full of growth hormones!) or their terrible unregulated system up here.
Elbows Up!
