As White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow repeated many times, “milk” is the key word in NAFTA renegotiation. This was echoed by US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in a TV interview aired on Sunday. Perdue said “our farmers don’t have access to the Canadian markets the way that they have access to us. Class 7 has to go. It can’t be renamed something or called something else.”
Class 7 is a new milk class created by Canada to price milk ingredients such as protein concentrates, skim milk and whole milk powder. Perdue added the class “allowed them to export milk solids on the world market and below prices that cut into our opportunity for our dairy people to have access to that world market.”
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland insisted over the weekend that to reach a deal, “it’s going to take flexibility on all sides.” She didn’t respond to Kudlow’s comments by pointed out that he is “not at the negotiating table”.
