An attack on the Canadian dairy system by Donald Trump prompted the federal government to release a letter that says the facts cited by the American President are wrong and ignore reality.In a speech in Wisconsin, Trump said NAFTA is a "one-sided deal" that doesn't let U.S. dairy farmers compete fairly because of the country's supply management systems.Within hours of his speech, Ottawa responded by taking the rare step of releasing copies of a letter from David McNaughton, Canada's ambassador in Washington, to the governors of Wisconsin and New York blaming domestic overproduction rather than Canadian policy for the woes of struggling American dairy farmers.“Canada does not accept the contention that Canada's dairy policies are the cause of financial loss for dairy farmers in the United States,” MacNaughton said. “The facts do not bear this out.” America's dairy exports to Canada are five times the value of its dairy imports from Canada.Picking up the theme of a Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) response to criticisms from Grassland Dairy Products Inc. of Wisconsin, MacNaughton said Canada has not imposed a new tax on U.S. diafiltered milk powder used to make cheese.Accompanying the ambassador's letter is a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which backs domestic overproduction as the problem facing the American dairy industry. McNaughton said “poor results in the U.S. sector are due to U.S. and global overproduction. As made clear in the report, Canada is not a contributor to the overproduction problem."He noted that Canada imports 6.3 per cent of its cheese consumption, 10 per cent of its butter and 10 per cent of its milk powder, much of it from the U.S. while the U.S. uses technical barriers to block most Canadian dairy products. The U.S. imports three per cent of its cheese and eight per cent of its milk power “noticeably less than Canada.”DFC said Grassland is trying to scapegoat Canadian policies rather than admitting too much milk is being produced in the United States. The dairy said it would stop taking milk shipments from 75 local farms because changes in Canadian regulations forced it to reduce its milk intake.DFC said Grassland was objecting to the recent implementation of Class 7 milk in Canada. “Unfortunately, their argument is filled with falsehoods and half-truths.” There “have been no changes to Canadian regulations related to dairy imports, or changes to Canadian dairy tariffs, and we want to set the record straight.”DFC noted that “To further put things into perspective, Canada only has a population of approximately 36 million people - less than the state of California. No matter how one views the situation, exports to a comparatively small Canadian market - one that is already filled with Canadian milk - are a drop in the bucket that will not solve the problems currently impacting the U.S dairy industry.”DFC also pointed out only nine per cent of all global milk production is exported, and that the global export market already contains established big players such as the U.S, New Zealand and EU countries which are at a competitive advantage due to the generous government subsidies they receive.Currently, the global dairy market is experiencing very low prices due to production surpluses. “The current global dairy crisis is a prime example of what can happen when markets go bad, and is exactly why Canada's dairy farmers prefer to focus on serving our domestic markets under the relative stability of supply management.”Meanwhile published reports in the U.S. quote Darin Von Ruden, President of Wisconsin Farmers Union, as saying Grassland was cutting its milk purchases as part of a plan to build a corporate-owned 5,000-cow dairy in the state.“We hope that Grassland will reconsider its Dunn County CAFO project,” Von Ruden says. “Having many independently owned dairy farms is better for the economy and better for our rural communities than one vertically integrated supply chain.”Last week, Trump received a letter from four U.S. dairy industry groups — the National Milk Producers Federation, the U.S. Dairy Export Council, the International Dairy Foods Association and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture — that accused Canada of violating its trade commitments to the U.S."Time and again Canada has demonstrated its disregard of its dairy commitments to the United States — hampering America's exports to Canada — while pursuing ways to use its government-controlled system to unfairly dump greater Canadian exports in global markets."Meanwhile Conservative leadership candidate Erin O'Toole used the dispute to criticize several of his competitors, especially Maxime Bernier who wantx to disband marketing boards.Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.