U.S. dairy exports make big inroads into Canada

Trade data shows that the United States is selling more dairy products to Canada.

In the last few years, American exports of cheese, butter, whey and other dairy products to Canada have climbed by 67 percent — going from C$525 million in 2021 to $877 million in 2024, using data from Agriculture Canada.

It’s a big win for U.S. dairy farmers, but that’s not the story being told by president Donald Trump.

“Canada must immediately drop their Anti-American Farmer Tariff of 250 per cent to 390 per cent on various U.S. dairy products, which has long been considered outrageous,” he said on Truth Social in early March.

Trump is exploiting only part of the story on dairy trade between the U.S. and Canada because he’s ignoring the export data.

Unfortunately, the tariffs are very large and are something that is easily distorted, says an agricultural economist from Cornell University.