Tag: Mexico dairy

NMPF Advances Dairy Priorities During USMCA Review

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

NMPF and cooperative leadership has been advocating on multiple fronts, including on Capitol Hill, in bilateral negotiations, and through coalition advocacy, to ensure the dairy industry is positioned for success as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) accelerates.

NMPF prepared board member Michael Lichte, who serves as Chief Insights and Optimization Officer for Dairy Farmers of America, to testify June 10 before the House Committee on Agriculture on the agreement’s importance to U.S. dairy, and where it is currently falling short.

“The underlying market distortions USMCA sought to discipline continue to affect U.S. manufacturers and global dairy protein markets,” Lichte added. “With appropriate enforcement and modernization, USMCA can continue supporting investment, export growth, and economic opportunity for the United States’ dairy farmers and processors for generations to come.”

Lichte documented Canada’s attempts to limit U.S. dairy exports through its dairy tariff-rate quota administration. He also highlighted Canada’s use of alternative tariff classifications to route surplus dairy proteins into global markets in ways that evade USMCA’s export disciplines, a practice confirmed by a May 2026 USITC report to which NMPF contributed evidence and testimony last year.

Lichte also underscored the importance of preserving U.S. exporters’ ability to use common cheese names like “feta” in Mexico, where NMPF has long fought back against EU geographical indications overreach.

Later in the month, NMPF executive vice president Shawna Morris provided input to the U.S. government in her capacity as a cleared confidential advisor during the June 15-17 negotiating round between the United States and Mexico.

NMPF President & CEO Gregg Doud joined a June 24 panel organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies with Mexico’s lead USMCA agricultural trade negotiator Dr. Julio Berdegué and Tom Rosser, assistant deputy minister for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, to highlight the importance of targeted adjustments to strengthen and renew the trade deal.

NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council also joined more than 150 North American agricultural organizations in a June 1 letter to USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer and his Canadian and Mexican counterparts that highlighted the need for USMCA to be strengthened and renewed during the review process.

“All three nations share the responsibility of protecting and strengthening this competitive advantage, which is essential not only to economic prosperity, but also to national security and regional stability,” the letter said.

NMPF and USDEC Statement on the First USMCA Joint Review

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

From NMPF and USDEC Executive Vice President Shawna Morris:

“As the United States, Mexico, and Canada launch the first Joint Review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), we commend the ongoing efforts to resolve outstanding issues and work toward a renewal of this vital agreement. Getting USMCA right matters enormously to our industry, which ships more than 40 percent of all U.S. dairy exports by value to Mexico and Canada.

“Mexico is our most important trading partner, and our dairy industries are deeply integrated. It is critical that a renewed USMCA fully protect the free trade of common name products, particularly against any EU-imposed geographical indication restrictions. Protecting the ability of both U.S. and Mexican producers to use common names is essential to preserving the integrated market we’ve built together.

“On the Canada side, USMCA was designed to deliver two key reforms: targeted new tariff-rate quotas and real disciplines on Canada’s ability to distort global dairy markets through unlimited exports of artificially underpriced dairy proteins. Canada has flagrantly disregarded both commitments, underscoring exactly why this Review is such an important tool. A renewed agreement must fix what isn’t working.

“We strongly support the U.S. government’s efforts to address these challenges and urge focused, intensive work by our trading partners to resolve them. A stronger, durable, renewed USMCA is key to the long-term prosperity of dairy producers and exporters across North America.”

NMPF Leads Charge to Prioritize Dairy in 2026 USMCA Review

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

As preparations continue for the 2026 review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council are advancing a coordinated strategy to ensure the agreement delivers on its promises to U.S. dairy producers.

NMPF Executive Vice President for Trade Policy and Global Affairs Shawna Morris testified before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative at a Dec. 3 hearing, to highlight the trade pact’s importance for U.S. dairy producers and emphasize the need for the administration to address violations of USMCA dairy commitments. Morris detailed how Canada continues to manipulate dairy tariff-rate quotas and offload surplus nonfat milk solids into global markets at artificially low prices. She also pointed to Mexico’s failure to implement USMCA protections for common cheese names like “feta.”

Congress reinforced the message the same day, as a bipartisan group of 74 House members sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer urging the administration to address unresolved dairy issues in the USMCA review. Developed with support from NMPF, USDEC, and dairy stakeholders, the letter calls out Canada’s unfair import restrictions and global dumping practices, while pressing for full implementation of Mexico’s commitments on common cheese names.

NMPF and USDEC also took their case directly to Capitol Hill. NMPF Trade Policy Director Tony Rice participated in a pair of briefings for House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committee staff on Dec. 9 and 10 as part of the new U.S. Agriculture Coalition for USMCA. Rice emphasized the importance of targeted improvements to the agreement, noting that 44 percent of U.S. dairy exports by value went to Mexico and Canada last year.

The progress builds on sustained engagement by NMPF and USDEC, including joint written comments submitted Oct. 31, an Aug. 5 appearance before the U.S. International Trade Commission, and multiple filings tied to the Commission’s investigation into nonfat milk solids competitiveness that will inform the administration’s approach to address Canada’s offloading of dairy proteins.

All together, these efforts reflect NMPF’s ongoing push to ensure the USMCA review strengthens the agreement, holds U.S. trading partners accountable, and delivers fair market access for American dairy producers.

U.S. and Mexico Dairy Sectors Recommit to Binational Cooperation

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

Leading dairy representatives from the United States and Mexico gathered at Dairy Farmers of America headquarters in Kansas City this week to discuss strengthening cross-border cooperation on dairy issues. The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) served as the U.S. hosts and event organizers. Mexico’s delegation at the meeting included representatives from the Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Ganaderas (CNOG), Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Leche (AMLAC), Gremio de Productores Lecheros de Mexico, Cámara Nacional de Industriales de la Leche (CANILEC), and Consejo Nacional Agropecuario (CNA).

On their fifth annual meeting within the framework of the partnership to strengthen the productive sector for milk in North America, held in Kansas City, the U.S. and Mexican dairy industries hereby agree to:

  1. Preserve, facilitate, and enhance fair trade between the two
  2. Preserve this forum for discussion and analysis of the relevant topics and issues of the milk and dairy producing sectors of Mexico and the United States.
  3. Have as a key objective the expansion of dairy consumption in both countries to the benefit of producers, manufacturers and consumers in the United States and Mexico. Promote joint activities that help increase the consumption of our dairy products within our region.
  4. Identify and promote actions that improve the productivity of dairy farms in Mexico and the United States.
  5. Continuously seek to strengthen the image and reputation of milk and dairy products in both countries to defend against the improper usage of milk and milk product names by other products of non-dairy origin.
  6. Maintain an open communication channel between the milk and dairy producers’ organizations of both countries, with the aim of achieving consensus for the benefit of our Likewise, exchange information and successful experiences through the participation of members of both countries in forums and congresses organized by our associations.
  7. Work on the strengthening of cooperation in the areas of technological exchange and training, both in terms of milk production at the farm level and in food safety and quality improvement of milk and dairy products from the nutritional standpoint.
  1. Work on sharing information on key new areas such as sustainability, animal welfare, farm labor, and other issues as they appear and mutually agree to the benefit of our producers and industry to ensure that we coordinate efforts to defend dairy in international forums and with consumers. Exchange information about the market trends of milk and dairy products in the North American region.
  2. Continue activities in defense of common food names, in particular, cheese names, allowing their free use in our North American market.
  1. Develop a work plan on the topics of the common agenda, with a follow-up scheme with scheduled meetings.