Congressional Dairy Champions Defend U.S. Dairy Markets
October 4, 2010
Congressional Dairy Champions Defend U.S. Dairy Markets
The House Dairy Farmer Caucus (DFC) devoted considerable time this past month to addressing issues threatening some of our most important foreign markets.
On Sept. 28th, 56 members of the Caucus wrote to the U.S. Trade Representative to urge a robust defense of America’s dairy industry against efforts by the European Union to claw back for its countries’ sole use several generic cheese names such as parmesan, provolone, and feta, as well as other names of importance to the U.S. dairy industry.
This bipartisan effort was led by Caucus Co-Chairs Joe Courtney from Connecticut; Devin Nunes from California; Tim Walz from Minnesota; and Peter Welch from Vermont. The DFC applauded the dedicated efforts that the Trade Representative’s office has invested in this area, and stressed the importance of ensuring that as the United States exports more American-made cheeses, America must retain the right to use these common names that are so recognizable to consumers around the world. For more information, see NMPF’s press release on this issue.
The four Caucus Co-Chairs also took further action on behalf of dairy producers this month by writing to President Obama about another issue of concern: retaliatory tariffs by Mexico that threaten our largest export market (readNMPF's summary of the issue). The chairs urged the President to take swift action address this situation that’s already having a negative impact on cheese sales from many areas throughout the country.
In addition to the efforts by the Dairy Farmer Caucus Co-Chairs, Rep. Bill Owens (NY), a strong defender of New York's dairy farmers, led several members from the upstate NY delegation in sending a letter to President Obamasimilarly urging swift action by the President to resolve this situation that’s negatively impacting New York's dairy industry and threatening exports from that state to Mexico. NMPF applauded the willingness of these members to stand up and urge action by the White House to address a situation of great concern to the dairy industry.
