Canadian plans for the allocation of its 18,000t tariff-free cheese quota from the European Union, under the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA), were not popular with the EU’s negotiating officials.

Canada plans to distribute 60% of the European tariff-free cheese to dairy producers and processors. However, the EU is concerned that it will go unused, as processors will not want new products competing with their Canadian ones, a European official told CBC news.

This would mean that the EU would not get the increased access to the Canadian market that it had negotiated.

A European source close to the negotiations confirmed to the Irish Farmers Journal that these reports are true.

Beef access

However, that is not to say that the stumbling block cannot be resolved. There has also been opposition to access for Canadian beef to the EU market. The quota in the deal grants Canada 50,000t, but the use of carcase wash acid is not accepted in the EU.

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