The federal government has unveiled a pair of programs to compensate the Canadian dairy industry for some of the hardships that will be felt as part of the Canada-European Union trade deal (CETA).

Almost 18 million kilograms of European cheeses will be allowed to enter into Canada tariff-free on an annual basis.

The government also announced how it plans to distribute import cheese licenses, giving fifty per cent of the tariff rate quotas to Canadian cheese makers, while the other half has been allocated to distributors and retailers.

David Wiens, chair for Dairy Farmers of Manitoba and Vice-President for Dairy Farmers of Canada, believes this was a missed opportunity.

"It simply bypasses the Canadian dairy industry and if the Canadian cheese makers would have had more access, or would have been given these import licenses then the kind of cheeses that would have been imported would have been complimentary to what is being produced in Canada, rather than more of the same thing from countries that have heavy subsidies in terms of their dairy industries."

Wiens adds that he's pleased to see that the government has acknowledged that the access granted to the EU will negatively impact dairy farmers in Canada.

CETA comes into effect on September 21, 2017.