Jaime Castaneda, NMPF’s Executive Vice President for Policy Development & Strategy, discusses Canada’s lack of willingness to honor its dairy commitments under USMCA on RFD-TV. A dispute resolution panel under the trade agreement has found Canada’s system of allocating access to its dairy market to the U.S. in violation of the deal. NMPF is urging an aggressive U.S. response.
An Illinois dairy processor highlighted the importance of exports to dairy manufacturing jobs in a virtual townhall organized by Farmers for Free Trade (FFT) today. Chris Hoeger, vice president of procurement for Prairie Farms Dairy, Inc., participated in a panel with Representative Dusty Johnson (R-SD), farmers and economists to discuss the critical role U.S. agricultural exports have in supporting the rural economy.
A participant in the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and U.S. Dairy Export Council’s (USDEC) Dairy Trade Envoys program, Hoeger joined with the panel in calling on the U.S. government to pursue comprehensive trade deals. He noted that, in the absence of negotiations on tariff reductions, American dairy exporters face an increasingly unbalanced playing field as the European Union and New Zealand forge ahead with new agreements.
“We appreciate the Administration’s important work in enforcing existing trade deals, including USMCA, but without new access opportunities, U.S. dairy exports will continue to face a disadvantage, and American jobs will suffer as a result,” Hoeger shared in his remarks. “Workers in the dairy industry want the Biden trade policy strategy to include following through with agreements already under negotiation, such as with the United Kingdom, a big dairy importing market, as well as going after new deals.”
NMPF and USDEC are members of FFT. Both play an active role in helping the organization carry out its mission of informing the public about the benefits of free trade and supporting the pursuit of beneficial trade agreements that expand export opportunities for American farmers and workers throughout the export supply chain.
“We appreciate the opportunity this Farmers for Free Trade townhall has provided to highlight how exports benefit not only American dairy farms, but also the thousands of workers in the dairy industry at the manufacturing level and throughout the supporting supply chain,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF. “We believe expanding market access to key dairy markets where the United States currently competes at a disadvantage would create continued much-needed opportunities for America’s dairy cooperatives like Prairie Farms. NMPF thanks Chris Hoeger and Representative Johnson for highlighting that need during today’s event.”
“As Chris Hoeger outlined so well at today’s event, dairy exports have a deep and positive impact on food manufacturing jobs in Illinois and throughout the country,” said Krysta Harden, USDEC president and CEO. “As reiterated throughout today’s event, American agricultural exports have wide-ranging benefits for workers at the farm, at the processing plant, in the supply chain and beyond. We appreciate Farmers for Free Trade’s and Congressman Johnson’s persistent advocacy for greater market access opportunities that will continue to support and grow our rural economies and the millions of American jobs that depend on them.”
The Dairy Trade Envoys are a select group of dairy producers and processing staff focused on educating elected officials and media about dairy trade policy priorities.
While movement by the administration to resume comprehensive trade negotiations remains lacking, NMPF continues pursuing multiple pathways and outlining steps to government officials that can be taken to expand market access for U.S. dairy exports.
NMPF president and CEO Jim Mulhern participated in a Feb. 10 agricultural CEO discussion with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai focused on the sector’s trade priorities and market barriers around the world, including the growing disadvantage U.S. agricultural exporters face in key markets as trade competitors negotiate free trade agreements and the United States doesn’t.
NMPF is continuing to press for the U.S. government to pursue comprehensive trade agreements, particularly with key dairy markets such as those in Southeast Asia and the United Kingdom, given that the administration is more focused currently on pursuing non-FTA trade initiatives. As a result, NMPF’s trade policy team is urging the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to use additional, alternative avenues to expand trade – addressing tariff and nontariff barriers – that can fill in gaps in trade opportunities until FTAs can be inked.
NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) submitted confidential recommendations to USTR earlier on Feb. 8, addressing areas of prime opportunity across a variety of high-priority markets. NMPF urged the administration to use trade tools such as Trade and Investment Framework Agreements and the fledgling Indo-Pacific Economic Framework to address the regulatory and policy challenges identified. NMPF is also encouraging a greater focus on lowering Most Favored Nation tariffs in key markets to put U.S. dairy exporters on a more level playing field.
On behalf of U.S. dairy producers and manufacturers, the National Milk Producers Federation and the U.S. Dairy Export Council lauded the industry’s decades of work that’s led to a record year for U.S. dairy exports after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced record sales of $7.75 billion in 2021, accounting for over 17% of U.S. milk production.
“The record demand for U.S. milk overseas in 2021 is a testament to the hard work and dedication of U.S. dairy farmers and the entire industry to making sure our high-quality, nutritious products feed the world as well as Americans,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation. “As we’ve said many times, exports represent the next frontier for U.S. dairy – it’s gratifying to see decades of effort bear fruit and only makes us more excited about the future successes ahead.”
“Outstanding results like last year’s record-setting $7.75 billion in U.S. dairy exports don’t happen overnight. They’re the result of a lot of hard work by our industry to build demand for U.S. dairy products around the world and harness the opportunities that past trade deals – from U.S. free trade agreements to the World Trade Organization’s Uruguay Round – have made available,” said Krysta Harden, president and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council. “We look forward to continuing to build on this success further and to ensure we have the right trade and export supply chain policy tools to support that growth.”
Exports may have reached even higher levels had U.S. exporters not been battered by supply chain challenges that drove up costs and complexity of delivering dairy products to foreign customers. The U.S. dairy industry will need proactive trade policies that remove barriers to trade and ensure that U.S. dairy farmers and manufacturers are equipped to compete on a level playing field, the organizations added.
Shawna Morris, Senior Vice President for Trade with the National Milk Producers Federation and the U.S. Dairy Export Council, discusses U.S. dairy’s win over Canada in the first trade dispute ever brought before the USMCA’s dispute settlement panel on RFD-TV. The panel ruled against Canada in a case brought by the United States over its unfair allocation of quotas that limited U.S. dairy access to Canada agreed to as part of USMCA.
Robert Chesler, CEO of the United Dairymen of Arizona, emphasized the importance of securing new market access opportunities through bilateral or multilateral Free Trade Agreements during a virtual town hall organized today by Farmers for Free Trade (FFT). For American dairy farmers to remain competitive in the international market, the United States must unlock new export markets, Chesler said.
As FFT members, the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) have a leading role in carrying out its mission of informing the public about the benefits of free trade and supporting the pursuit of beneficial trade agreements that expand export opportunities for American farms.
During today’s virtual event, Chesler spoke of the challenges that American dairy exporters face as the United States’ trade competitors continue to secure greater dairy market access in key export markets. He noted that countries such as New Zealand, Australia, and the EU are aggressively pursuing new trade deals, which then harms the competitiveness of U.S. dairy products at a time when international demand is growing. In his remarks, Chesler said that policy actions focused on increased competition and removing burdensome market barriers are key to sustaining our existing export markets and opening additional opportunities for U.S. dairy producers.
“We urge the Administration to seek Trade Promotion Authority renewal to go after new trade agreements,” Chesler noted in his comments. “This is critical to realizing fully the potential of dairy markets in places like Vietnam, Indonesia, the United Kingdom and other major dairy purchasers. In the meantime, the U.S. should be using all types of trade tools to expand access and reduce barriers to U.S. exports with major agricultural importing markets.”
An NMPF and USDEC member based in Tempe, the United Dairymen of Arizona is a full-service milk marketing cooperative founded in 1960. Its farmer-owned manufacturing facility produces milk powder, cream, butter, and a variety of other dairy ingredients, many of which are exported around the world.
“We thank Robert for representing the industry and outlining provisions that could improve our export market,” said Jim Mulhern, NMPF president and CEO. “American dairy farmers support thousands of jobs in rural communities. Unfortunately, the lack of a trade agenda that focuses on opening markets limits our ability to grow. We need the administration to aggressively pursue greater market access opportunities to ensure American dairy exporters can effectively compete with other dairy exporting nations that continue to ink new agreements.”
“We applaud Robert’s remarks today about the competitive disadvantage that U.S. dairy producers are facing and encourage this administration to address the issue by engaging in negotiations with our trading partners,” said Krysta Harden, USDEC president and CEO. “What we are seeing today are unfavorable tariff rates when compared to our competitors and regulatory barriers that are hampering our exporters’ ability to access their full market potential. USDEC strongly supports UDA’s call to action for the administration to use its trading tools to pursue new opportunities.”
NMPF Senior Vice President of Communications Alan Bjerga discusses how dairy demand may fare over the holiday season as COVID worries clash with consumer cravings for eggnog. Meanwhile, U.S. senators are looking at milk pricing, a discussion NMPF is leading thanks to its nationwide scope and diverse membership. Bjerga spoke in an interview on RFD-TV.
NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern speaks at the organization’s annual meeting in Las Vegas, NV on Nov. 16.
Current supply chain strains at U.S. ports will need improvements in federal policies to provide both short- and longer-term solutions, NMPF Senior Vice President for Trade Shawna Morris said in an interview with the National Association of Farm Broadcasters. “The fact that the market is not improving, that things are not sorting themselves out and that we don’t seem to be around the corner,” Morris said, “really points to the need for more government introduction into this process through the legislative side and through the administration side to help deal with this.”
NMPF and U.S. Dairy Export Council Executive Vice President Jaime Castaneda discusses backups at U.S. ports, how delays in dairy shipments can threaten trade reliability and relationships, and how federal policy can be improved to alleviate dairy export challenges on the Adams on Agriculture podcast.
As NMPF continues to reiterate to the U.S. government the need for greater market access opportunities for U.S. dairy, the Trade Policy team is highlighting a need for strong enforcement of agreements already in place to ensure American dairy producers are provided the access already negotiated – notably the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
In two National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) meeting sessions on Oct. 21 and 26 with state agricultural commissioners in October, NMPF staff highlighted the importance of the ongoing dispute settlement proceedings over Canada’s allocation and administration of dairy tariff-rate quotas that run counter to its commitments under the new trade pact. In addition, NMPF emphasized the need for diligence regarding Canada’s other USMCA dairy commitments and for a heightened focus on preserving smooth trade flows with our largest export partner, Mexico.
The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) support the Senate confirmation yesterday of Cindy McCain’s nomination to serve as U.S. Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture. The United States’ active involvement in the three Rome-based U.N. food agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is critical as countries and their food producers combat hunger.
“Through Codex Alimentarius and other programs, the FAO plays a key role in setting global standards for the movement and consumption of safe food. U.S. dairy producers, manufacturers, and exporters rely on strong U.S. leadership in FAO convenings to ensure policy recommendations and decisions are science-based,” said Krysta Harden, President and CEO of USDEC. “With a wealth of experience working across international boundaries, Cindy McCain is well-positioned to serve as the next U.S. Representative to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture.”
As the global conversation on sustainable food systems shifts from the UN Food Systems Summit to work in the Rome-based agencies, it is critical that the U.S. has a strong voice in international fora to amplify the role that the U.S. dairy and agricultural industry is playing in advancing sustainability efforts. American dairy farmers, processors, and manufacturers are leaders in advancing voluntary action to reduce environmental impacts, including an industry-wide goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and a first-of-its kind voluntary National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Animal Care program, which sets high standards for animal care, housing, and antibiotic stewardship for 99% of all milk originating in the United States.
“The position of U.S. Ambassador to the UN Food Agencies is uniquely important as countries grapple with feeding a growing world population in a sustainable manner. UN forums, including the important follow up work initiated by the Food Systems Summit, are opportunities for U.S. dairy to showcase our sustainability efforts, and it is vitally important for the U.S. dairy industry to be well represented in these discussions,” said Jim Mulhern, President and CEO of NMPF. “With a long and rich career devoted to serving people around the world, Cindy McCain epitomizes the qualities needed to serve the American people in Rome.”
