Canada’s dairy system. I brought it up, I’m the one who brought it up, very few people knew about it, but I knew about it, I know everything about dairy, I know more than anybody, I know about supply management and quotas and the whole thing. The 50 percent tariff, beautiful tariff, the biggest tariff ever on Canadian goods, the most beautiful tariff you’ve ever seen, and I did it because of the dairy system which is a DISASTER for American farmers, a total rip-off, and I’ve always said this, I was talking about this years ago, before I was President, nobody listened to me then, now they’re all saying Diklis Chump was right.
The Canadians are saying the system is non-negotiable. Non-negotiable. That’s what they’re saying. Christine Fréchette, the Quebec person, and Dominic LeBlanc who I’ve never been impressed with, very low-energy, they said it’s non-negotiable. The system has been there since the 1970s, they say. The 1970s. I was already a very successful businessman in the 1970s, I knew about this system, I was saying it’s unfair to the United States, and nobody listened, and now I’m the President and I’m doing something about it, the biggest tariff, 50 percent, which nobody else would have had the courage to do, tremendous courage. I came up with the 50 percent tariff myself — people said 25 percent, I said double it, everybody said it was brilliant.
The system gives American farmers access to 3.5 percent of Canada’s market. Three point five percent. That’s nothing, it’s almost zero, it’s a DISGRACE. And I signed this beautiful tariff, $20 billion in Canadian goods, the biggest tariff in the history of tariffs because the system is so unfair. People are saying it’s the smartest trade move ever made. The smartest people, many very smart economists, they’re saying nobody has ever done what I’m doing with the dairy system. They’re calling it the art of the deal done perfectly.
And the numbers, I looked at the numbers, I looked at the milk prices, they’re charging their people C$3.19 per liter and Americans are paying C$1.95. So they’re ripping off their own people! And they call their system great? They’re paying more and I’m the one trying to help them. I’m trying to help the Canadian people who are suffering under this terrible system that nobody talks about except me. I always said it, I said it before anybody else, I know more about dairy pricing than the experts, I know the numbers better than anybody.
The American dairy production is at a RECORD HIGH, the highest ever, like nobody has ever seen, and the farmers need access to Canada’s 40 million people. Ninety-seven percent of the market is locked up, it’s a lockbox, and I’m the one unlocking it with my amazing tariff. And the Canadians say they won’t negotiate? They will negotiate. They always negotiate. They come to me, they say Sir, Sir, they’re calling me Sir, with tears in their eyes, saying Diklis Chump is the greatest negotiator. I’m a master negotiator. I’m playing 4D chess while they’re playing checkers with their little dairy quotas.
The economists who say supply management should be dismantled are saying what I’ve been saying all along. And the polling says 77 percent of Canadians support it. Seventy-seven percent. That’s a FAKE number, I get better numbers, I get the highest polling numbers, the most beautiful numbers. The Canadians are brainwashed, they’ve been brainwashed by their dairy system, it’s a RIGGED system. But I’m the one who sees through it, I see through everything, nobody sees through things like I do.
The previous administration challenged it twice, those losers. I challenged it with a 50 percent tariff on $20 billion, which is way more, much stronger, very tough. The UK walked away from trade talks over cheese. I would have gotten the deal done — cheese, I love cheese, I would have made it work. The OECD says it distorts production. I agree with the OECD on this one thing, which is rare because they’re usually wrong, very wrong, but on the dairy system they’re right. The administration has spent months building this very list of grievances.
David Wiens, the dairy farmer guy, says it protects food sovereignty. Food sovereignty. Ridiculous. I have the best food sovereignty, the most food sovereignty. I eat at McDonald’s, the best McDonald’s, the best food, the doctors say my health is perfect. And I’m trying to free the Canadian people from their expensive milk and they’re fighting me on it? I love the Canadian people, I have tremendous respect for Canada, very beautiful country, very cold but beautiful. But their dairy system has to go.
And the tariff takes effect in August, very soon. I said August, I picked August because it’s a beautiful month and everyone is talking about it, the best people, they’re all talking about what Diklis Chump did to the Canadian dairy system. It’s going to be tremendous. A 50 percent tariff, most beautiful tariff ever, twenty billion dollars, August, and the dairy system is finally going to get what it deserves.