Some Midwestern Federal Reserve banks say the renegotiated North America Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, won't be of much help for American dairy farmers.
As part of the deal, the U.S. and Canada agreed in September to let U.S. dairy farmers supply about 3.5 percent of Canada's dairy market. But the Chicago Federal Reserve said the benefits of that agreement are "too small and too far in the future to help dairy farmers."
It added that while the new NAFTA deal relaxed some restrictions, Canada and Mexico maintained their tariffs on dairy, pork and certain agricultural products due to President Donald Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
The Minneapolis Federal Reserve echoed those sentiments in a report released Wednesday, saying that many dairy operations have closed up shop since the beginning of the year.
Most of the key provisions of the new NAFTA deal won't begin until 2020, as Congress has yet to approve it.
