Canadian dairy farmers accuse Trump of trying to drive them out of business
OTTAWA — After enduring months of withering fire from Donald Trump’s bombastic Twitter feed, Canada’s dairy industry waded into the fray on Monday by accusing the U.S. president of wanting to put Canadian farmers out of business.
Yet even as it did so, some in this country were calling for major reforms to the very system of protections for Canada’s dairy, egg and chicken farmers that first ignited — and has continued to sustain — Trump’s anger: supply management.
Trump’s most recent salvo came in a series of tweets from Singapore late Sunday, where he again blasted Canada for charging a 270 per cent tariff on U.S. dairy imports, and levelled more personal attacks at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Dairy Farmers of Canada president Pierre Lampron, which represents Canada’s roughly 12,000 dairy producers, fired back Monday by blasting Trump’s “personal attacks on our prime minister” and defending its supply-managed system.