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Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

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U.S.-Canadian trade of agricultural products, including dairy, is generally done without tariffs.

Tariffs are taxes paid on imported goods.

Canada has set tariffs exceeding 200% for U.S. dairy products.

But the tariffs are imposed only when the amount imported exceeds quotas.

The U.S. “has never gotten close to exceeding” quotas that would trigger Canada’s dairy tariffs, the International Dairy Foods Association said in March.

The Washington, D.C.-based group blamed Canadian “protectionist measures” for the U.S. not exporting enough dairy to reach quotas.

Canada-U.S. trade is tariff-free for almost all agricultural products, the U.S. Agriculture Department said in February.

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who represents most of northern Wisconsin, said March 13 “Canada is tariffing us 200%” on dairy.

President Donald Trump made a similar claim March 12 in support of his tariff proposals.

Wisconsin exported $1.4 billion in agricultural products to Canada in 2023, more than double the amount of any other country, according to the latest statistics.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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Tom Kertscher joined Wisconsin Watch as a full-time Milwaukee-based reporter in October 2024 after starting as a freelance Fact Briefs reporter in January 2023. In addition to contributing to Wisconsin Watch’s collaboration with The Gigafact Project to combat online misinformation, he reports on Wisconsin policy, labor, energy and the rapid expansion of data centers across the state. Kertscher is a former longtime reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a contributing writer for Milwaukee Magazine and the author of two sports books, on Al McGuire and Brett Favre.