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Negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement are once again heating up, and as the historic deal nears completion, Canada is facing a tough decision.

The U.S. Congress recently granted President Barack Obama the power to “fast-track” the talks, agreeing that it would vote only on the final TPP package, with no power to amend the text. This represents a significant step forward for the deal, and a signing is now said to be possible as early as August. But if Canada wants to be included among those signatories, it seems increasingly likely that the price will be the supply-management system that has sheltered our dairy and poultry industries for decades. If the TPP opens the door to a surge of dairy and poultry imports from abroad, Quebec — which is home to half the country’s 12,000 dairy farms — will suffer the greatest financial blow. Farmers are understandably worried.

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The federal government has promised to defend supply management. After all,some other TPP countries have their own protectionist measures in place and are looking to maintain them.But Canada should not shield supply management at all costs, especially as it would be in the larger Canadian interest to get rid of it, for the sake of the greater economic good.