President Trump’s tariff measures toward trading partners across the world sends a clear signal to trading partners: The United States is no longer going to stand for shenanigans that lead to unlevel playing fields. That’s especially true in dairy. And within dairy, the European Union stands apart as an example of shenanigans in action. If the president’s tariffs spur the negotiations that place their policies within the realm of reality and fairness, the effort will be worthwhile.
American farmers have long voiced their concerns about the unfairness of the EU’s agricultural trade policies, arguing that these policies create significant challenges for them in the global marketplace. Some facts: In 1980, the US exported $12 billion in agricultural products to the 27 current members of the European Union. That $12 billion was the high-water mark until 2023. We’ve gone almost 45 years bouncing in a range of between $6 billion and $12 billion annually to the European Union — accounting for zero export growth since the Carter administration. Meanwhile, the trade deficit in agricultural products is growing, and gaping: $23.6 billion at last count.
Now look at dairy trade. The U.S. imports $3 billion in dairy from the European Union — and exports $167 million. We export more cheese to New Zealand, a major dairy exporter with a population of 5 million people — or roughly the same population as Ireland, Slovakia or Norway.
That’s pathetic.
Why do we have that gap, and how do we close it?
From more than 30 years of dealing with EU agriculture, the answer to the first part is simply this: The EU is reflexively protectionist in agriculture. The U.S. “beef hormone” case against the EU, which dates to the 1980s, is a classic example: The U.S. won. The EU has never complied.
The EU Farm to Fork Initiative, all the certification requirements and protocols, everything that requires processes in the EU, all of it is designed to keep ag imports out. The EU approach to common cheese names like “parmesan” — making it impossible for Americans to sell their products as what they actually are — is a crowning example of the creative, and inappropriate, use of non-tariff barriers to protect their market.
And none of that even touches on the subsidies the Europeans lavish on their farmers, and the schemes they use to push their products at low prices on global markets, ensuring that U.S. farmers repeatedly struggle with unfair competition as they build their own relationships via high-quality, affordable products.
Any effort to close this gap is long overdue; the Trump administration’s strategy starts this process and squarely puts the focus — and the pressure — where it should be: On Brussels, which has artificially created this lopsided trade imbalance and needs to take tangible steps to level the playing field.
In my three decades of experience, the European Union has proven impossible to deal with in agriculture — but if the president stays steady and forceful on EU tariffs, we may finally get their attention. We have no problem with the president hiking tariffs on EU imports higher to drive them to the table — the current ones are a bargain for the EU, considering the highly restrictive barriers the EU imposes on our dairy exporters. And if Europe retaliates against the United States, the administration should respond swiftly and strongly in kind by raising tariffs yet further on European cheeses and butter.
Much has been written about the president’s aggressive stances toward traditional allies such as the EU, questioning the wisdom of taking on our “friends.” But with friends like these, who needs enemies? Relationships are reciprocal, and fairness is the foundation of goodwill. There has been no fairness from the EU toward American farmers — for decades.
All that said, hope remains that American dairy can finally make real progress through productive negotiations. This administration can help achieve a level playing field for U.S. dairy producers by tackling the EU’s numerous tariff and nontariff trade barriers that bog down our exports. It can create a brighter future for U.S. dairy trade — and build hope among farmers who know that the administration is listening to them, and now the world as well.
As the administration moves forward with negotiations, we’re hoping for swiftly negotiated, constructive outcomes. We will do whatever we can to help break this decades-old logjam that has hurt U.S. farmers and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. The field is wide open, and we are poised for progress.
Gregg Doud
President & CEO, NMPF
