A century-old Canadian dairy producer is seeking to expand into emerging Asian markets in the face of the sweeping global tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The United States had a trade surplus of 530 million Canadian dollars with Canada in 2024, but the Trump administration still accused Canada of unfair trade practices and imposed additional tariffs. For now, the tariffs mainly impact the steel and auto industries, but the administration has threatened to take aim at more product categories, including dairy.
That could significantly increase supply chain costs, forcing Canadian dairy producers to either raise prices or risk losing their market share.
Like many other Canadian dairy producers, Avalon Dairy relies on the U.S. raw materials and processing ability and sells its finished products to the U.S. market. Now, it finds itself grappling with the potential impacts of the tariffs.
"Our goal is not to replace high cost. It's to maintain our quality. But we could see increases. We could see increases. And if it's 10 percent, it could be up to 40-50 cents per container on a product that sells and retails for five dollars," said Russ Rimmer, CEO of Avalon Dairy.
Avalon Dairy is also shifting its focus toward emerging Asian markets, where fewer trade restrictions provide better opportunities for growth.
"We lend that back into our Plan B's. The Asian market is unique for us. We don't have those tariffs and duties that are restrictive to our prices. So therefore it makes it a huge opportunity for us," Rimmer said.
Century-old Canadian dairy producer looks to overseas markets amid US tariff threats
Century-old Canadian dairy producer looks to overseas markets amid US tariff threats
China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) will work with relevant departments and local authorities to take concrete steps to promote the implementation of the newly passed private sector promotion law, a landmark legislation concerning a vast economic force in the country, said an NDRC official.
China's top legislative body -the National People's Congress - passed the private sector promotion law on Wednesday, establishing a legal backing for the steady and healthy growth of the key sector, including more than 57 million private firms and over 100 million self-employed individuals.
This landmark law is China's first fundamental legislation dedicated to the private sector. It will bolster confidence among the vast community by improving the business environment, fostering innovation, and ensuring fair competition, according to NDRC, the country's top economic planner.
"The private sector promotion law has actively responded to the key concerns in the development of the private sector. Efforts are made to establish and improve relevant systems and enhance the enforceability of the systems, from ensuring fair competition, improving investment and financing environment, supporting technology innovation, focusing on regulated operation, optimizing services and guarantees, and improving rights and interest protection, to strengthening legal accountability, so as to ensure that all forms of ownership can equally utilize production factors by the law, participate in market competition fairly, receive equal legal protection, further unleash their complementary advantages, and pursue common development," said Liu Min, deputy director of Private Sector Development Bureau under NDRC.
Liu added NDRC will continue to work together with relevant departments and local authorities to improve supporting systems and mechanisms and take concrete steps to promote the implementation of the private sector promotion law.
"We will make continuous and increasing efforts to remove barriers to market access and to fair competition, to address the issue of overdue payments to private enterprises, to protect the lawful rights and interests of private businesses and entrepreneurs by the law, to implement various relief policies, to help private enterprises shoulder their responsibilities of the era, so as to help translate legal systems into concrete actions and tangible outcomes that promote the high-quality development of the private sector," said Liu.
Concrete steps to take for firmly implementing China's landmark private sector promotion law: official
