Tag: US-Mexico-Canada agreement

USMCA Joint Review Launches as NMPF Champions Dairy

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

NMPF is moving on multiple fronts to make sure the United States, Mexico and Canada advance the Review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) works as intended for U.S. dairy, building on the market access secured to date and resolving issues critical to the trade treaty’s renewal.

NMPF responded to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s July 1 announcement that the United States would not agree to renew USMCA in its current form by encouraging efforts to resolve dairy issues including Canadian market access and nonfat milk solids exports, as well as Mexico’s protection of common food names. The agreement remains in force while the parties work through unresolved issues; it does not lapse or terminate automatically.

NMPF’s Jaime Castaneda and Shawna Morris participated in the third round of U.S.-Mexico bilateral USMCA Review negotiations in Mexico City on July 22-23, which provided a backdrop for the eighth annual U.S.-Mexico Binational Dairy Summit held later in the month. NMPF will remain engaged as the Mexico talks continue, with the next negotiating round scheduled for early next month.

As negotiations with Canada have been progressing at a slower pace, NMPF supported a July 20 announcement from the administration that it will be imposing a 50 percent tariff on certain Canadian imports, including some dairy products, starting Aug. 19. USTR plans to impose the tariffs under Section 338 of the Trade Act of 1930, citing Canada’s discriminatory treatment of U.S. dairy exports in its decision. USTR paired the announcement with two additional Section 338 determinations on Canada’s discriminatory treatment of U.S. motor vehicles and alcoholic beverages exports.

NMPF president and CEO Gregg Doud commended USTR’s exploration of all available trade tools to address the outstanding dairy trade issues with Canada, saying the “assertive action by the administration makes clear to Canada that their dairy trade practices will no longer be tolerated. Canada simply cannot continue to discriminate against U.S. dairy farmers by effectively blocking negotiated access to its market. It is well past time for Canada to negotiate in good faith and tackle the outstanding USMCA dairy implementation issues to help drive a successful conclusion of the USMCA review.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded to the new tariffs by committing to expedited negotiations but did not rule out retaliation should trade talks fall apart.

NMPF will stay closely engaged with U.S. trade officials through every negotiating round, working to keep dairy priorities front and center and to preserve and strengthen the gains U.S. dairy has built with both neighbors under USMCA.

Dairy Industry Leader Testifies before Congress on USMCA Dairy Priorities

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

Michael Lichte, Chief Insights and Optimization Officer for Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), testified today before the House Committee on Agriculture on the importance of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to U.S. dairy and the need for strengthening dairy implementation and enforcement during the agreement’s forthcoming joint review. Lichte served as a witness representing the National Milk Producers Federation as a board member and the U.S. Dairy Export Council as a director.

“Export demand now accounts for 17% of total U.S. milk production and has become one of the primary drivers of incremental growth across the dairy sector,” Lichte said. “For DFA and the U.S. dairy industry broadly, USMCA remains one of the most consequential trade agreements affecting long-term competitiveness, manufacturing investment, and farm-level economic stability. That’s why it’s essential that we strengthen and renew it.”

Mexico and Canada together account for more than 40% of all U.S. dairy exports by value. Lichte’s testimony focused on Canada’s administration of its dairy tariff-rate quotas in a manner that limits trade and its circumvention of USMCA export disciplines for dairy proteins, while also highlighting the importance of preserving U.S. exporters’ ability to use common cheese names like “feta” in Mexico.

On Canada, Lichte documented chronic underfill of negotiated dairy tariff-rate quotas, with cumulative fill rates reaching only 64% for industrial-use cheese, 34% for fluid milk, and just 7% for skim milk powder through 2025. He also detailed Canada’s growing use of alternative tariff classifications to move surplus dairy proteins into U.S. and global markets in ways that evade USMCA’s dairy protein export caps, a practice confirmed by a May 2026 U.S. International Trade Commission report.

“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.”

A link to the written testimony can be found here.

USMCA: An opportunity dairy can’t miss

Posted on by Rachel Ravencraft

By Shawna Morris, Executive Vice President, Trade Policy & Global Affairs

The first mandatory review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will take place in 2026, bringing all three countries together to evaluate the agreement’s first five years and consider changes. For U.S. dairy producers, this review is a critical opportunity to finally secure the gains promised under USMCA.

When USMCA was implemented in 2020, it was expected to deliver a limited yet important expansion into the Canadian market for U.S. exporters. The deal also established rules to limit Canada’s offloading of artificially low-priced dairy ingredients into global markets and to safeguard the ability of U.S. producers to use common names like “Parmesan” in Mexico. Five years in, there are still shortfalls in each of these key areas.

Canada’s TRQ manipulation and export loopholes

From day one, Canada has repeatedly violated its obligations through its tariff-rate quota (TRQ) allocations, which are designed to allow U.S. producers to export a certain quantity of a product tariff-free. However, Canada has manipulated the system by giving the vast majority of the quota allotments to Canadian processors instead of allowing others throughout the Canadian supply chain a fair shot at securing and filling the quotas. As a result, dairy TRQ fill rates remain chronically low. For example, U.S. dairy exporters have missed out on over 15,000 metric tons of bulk cheese exports over the past five years — and that is just one quota.

Adding insult to injury, Canada has created a new workaround that enables its producers to continue to dump artificially low-priced dairy proteins, which undermines commercially priced U.S. products outside of Canada. National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) estimates that Canada’s dairy protein exports benefiting from this policy equate to over $740 million of Class IV Skim paid to producers over the last four years.

Mexico’s common name commitments

Mexico is a valued and vital partner. Unfortunately, it has fallen short in one important USMCA area: protection of common cheese names.

Five years into the USMCA agreement, Mexico has failed to implement regulations to ensure that no new barriers arise to the use of common cheese names. This leaves many widely used names like “Feta” and “Parmesan” vulnerable to geographical indication restrictions as the European Union advances its trade deal with Mexico toward implementation.

A coordinated and forceful response

In preparation for next year’s review, the NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) have mounted a coordinated and proactive strategy.

Last week, with robust support from across the U.S. dairy community, 74 members of the House of Representatives urged the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to address these issues. To complement that call, NMPF and USDEC testified before USTR on Dec. 3 to outline the importance of ensuring USMCA lives up to its potential.

To tackle Canada’s growing policy-driven dairy exports, NMPF and USDEC also testified and submitted comments to the U.S. International Trade Commission as part of its investigation into U.S. competitiveness in nonfat milk solids — an inquiry launched at USTR’s request following NMPF and USDEC advocacy regarding Canada’s distortions of global dairy markets.

Meanwhile, NMPF, USDEC, and the Consortium for Common Food Names continue to work with the U.S. and Mexican governments to ensure that the use of common names can continued unimpeded in Mexico.

Conclusion

These efforts reflect a broader strategy by NMPF and USDEC, working together with the wider U.S. dairy community, to enter the 2026 USMCA review with a strong, well-documented case for holding trading partners accountable and ensuring that U.S. dairy producers receive the market access and fair competition they were promised.

 

This column originally appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel on Dec. 22, 2025.