Workers package artisinal cheeses at a production facility in Noyan, Que.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
Cheese is becoming a wedge issue for global trade in 2026.
China caused a stink last week when it slapped provisional duties of up to 42.7 per cent on imports of dairy products from the European Union. Classic cheeses, including French Roquefort and Italian gorgonzola, were among the dairy delicacies caught in China’s crosshairs.
Beijing, which is continuing its investigation, says that EU subsidies are hurting its dairy industry. For its part, Brussels has characterized the allegations as “questionable.”
It is, of course, a coincidence that China is inflaming trade tensions as a domestic milk surplus weighs down prices for its dairy products. Yet Beijing’s provisional duties are widely being interpreted as new reprisals against the EU for imposing tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles in the fall of 2024.
China, though, is far from alone in using dairy sector protectionism to advance its economic interests to the detriment of free trade. Numerous countries, including Canada, limit foreign access to domestic dairy markets and are eager to maintain or fortify those bulwarks in upcoming trade talks.
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Cheese is often a target of those trade barriers, making it ripe for conflict, including in the forthcoming renegotiation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.
Washington is already voicing its displeasure at Canada’s supply management system, which fixes prices for dairy (along with eggs and poultry), because it limits competition from foreign products.
Specifically, the United States Trade Representative, or USTR, flagged supply management as a “non-tariff barrier” to trade.
“Under the current system, U.S. imports above quota levels are subject to prohibitively high tariffs (e.g., 245 per cent for cheese and 298 per cent for butter),” states its 2025 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers.
The Trump administration also takes exception to so-called technical barriers to trade, including “compositional standards” for cheese.
“Canada’s regulations on compositional standards for cheese limit the amount of dry milk protein products that can be used in cheese making, reducing the demand for U.S. dry milk protein products,” states the USTR’s report.
“The United States continues to monitor these regulations for any changes that could have a further adverse impact on U.S. dairy product exports.”
Other countries are also cheesed off with Canada – albeit for different reasons.
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Take Britain, for example. Although it has agreed to resume trade talks with Canada, bilateral negotiations stalled in 2024 over a dispute over beef and, you guessed it, cheese.
Britain is Canada’s fifth-largest supplier of cheese and is clamouring for more access to our supply-managed dairy market, including for its famed exports of Stilton, Cheshire and Wensleydale.
Canada was resistant to that proposal last time around. For its part, London staunchly opposed Ottawa’s push to sell genetically modified beef in Britain.
Perhaps the 2024 conflict has left a bad aftertaste on both sides of the pond.
Although Prime Minister Mark Carney and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer issued a joint statement last June that outlined common areas of focus, including with respect to trade, there was nary a word about cheese (or beef).
Some EU countries, meanwhile, have yet to ratify the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, over worries that it fails to adequately protect their renowned cheeses. (CETA has provisionally been in effect since 2017.)
Lawmakers in Cyprus, for instance, voted against CETA in 2020. The reason? Too many other countries, including Canada, produce knock-off versions of halloumi.
Italy has similarly failed to formally ratify CETA partly because of long-standing concerns that the free trade deal offers insufficient safeguards for Parmigiano Reggiano.
Indeed, there are a plethora of copycat “Parmesan cheese” products, including some that are made in Canada.
Greece, meanwhile, is dragging its feet on ratifying CETA because it is fretting about feta.
This past June, Canada’s then ambassador to Greece, Anna-Karine Asselin, pushed for ratification before leaving her post, arguing the “full benefits of CETA remain untapped.”
“Ratifying the agreement would give Greece tariff-free access to a trusted G7 market and cement its position as a preferred partner for Canadian investors,” Ms. Asselin wrote in an op-ed.
“This moment is about more than trade,” she later added. “It’s about who stands with us when the ground shifts.”
Perhaps that was a veiled reference to the U.S., which is challenging the EU’s system of “geographical indications” for granting privileged status to feta and other notable products.
To be sure, some countries have legitimate reasons to be sharp with each other. But if the cheese slides off the cracker completely, then free trade will certainly lose its whey.