Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 10/16/18

There's a particular section of the new NAFTA deal that dairy experts are intently focused on as they try to figure out how the agreement will shake out for producers in the U.S. and Canada, reports Pro Canada's Alexander Panetta.

Is Class 7 really dead? The fine print will be crucial to understanding the fate of Canada's controversial Class 7 dairy policy. Class 7 allows Canada's producers to sell protein components skimmed from butter fat at low, open-market prices, potentially undercutting their American competitors. There's a little-reported clause in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that allows parts of the controversial Canadian pricing regulation, Class 7, to survive in a lesser form.

A slight change: The proposed replacement of Class 7 allows Canada to continue to roughly match U.S. protein prices, which is only a slight change from the current practice whereby Canada can lower prices to those in three jurisdictions: the U.S., plus Europe and New Zealand, Alex reports. Class 7 is one of several key changes designed to pry open a crack in Canada's mostly protected dairy sector.