The term “August recess,” used to describe the traditional slow period when lawmakers and federal workers alike escaped Washington’s heat and humidity, was a misnomer this year. From critical trade negotiations with Canada, to a frustrating development on beef tariffs, to the ongoing effort to make ag-labor reform real, August has been one of the year’s busiest months for the dairy industry in Washington. (And that’s without even mentioning the Senate version of the farm bill, which is in temporary limbo after a failed committee vote.)
We’ve been keeping up with every development, speaking out and acting as needed on behalf of our members. Here’s a rundown of key issues, and how we’ve stood on them.
On Canada. With USMCA talks with Canada broken down and the potential for retaliatory tariffs in both directions hanging over both economies, including several dairy products, the U.S.-Canada trade relationship is at an impasse, at least for the moment. This may be surprising to many who don’t closely follow the traditionally friendly relationship – but in dairy, this showdown has been decades in the making.
Under the USMCA trade agreement negotiated during the first Trump term, Canada committed to providing meaningful additional duty-free access for U.S. dairy exports through a series of tariff-rate quotas (TRQs). Canada’s administration of those TRQs has repeatedly resulted in chronic under-use, reducing the benefit for American dairy farmers. Canada also continues to exploit loopholes to sidestep USMCA on dairy protein exports.
NMPF and our partners at the U.S. Dairy Export Council have long urged the White House to make fixing this a priority. The Trump team has consistently called out Canada’s disregard for its USMCA commitments on dairy market access. Canada needs to stop looking for workarounds and instead sit down in good faith to resolve these long-standing dairy issues. Canada’s retaliation against U.S. goods is disappointing, but all it’s doing is forcing the U.S. hand. A cool-down would be welcome; but must include a dairy market access fix. The objective should be for both our countries to prevent increased friction and build on the progress made through weeks of negotiations.
While we consistently offer our expertise and assistance to support the Administration on improving U.S.-Canadian dairy trade, we also believe it is important to explain the unintended consequences of federal intervention in agricultural commodity markets such as this recent decision to eliminate the tariff on imported beef.
Cull cow and calf sales have become a key economic driver for U.S. dairy farmers, equating to roughly 20% of annual dairy farm income, and more than 20% of the U.S. beef production is now being supplied by dairy farms. Current beef prices have helped push dairy cow numbers to the highest point in the United States since 1992; meanwhile U.S. milk production is up 2.7% versus last year. Both trends help keep beef and dairy products affordable for consumers; dairy is stepping up to contribute to solving the consumer challenge of higher beef prices.
Rewarding imports sends the wrong message to U.S. dairy farmers and manufacturers who are investing billions of dollars to grow the domestic supply of beef and dairy products. The decision to remove duties on imports of 300,000 metric tons of beef over the next 90 days will have a short-term, muted price impact for consumers. But the effects on both dairy and beef producers could be felt for some time by delaying the necessary economic signal sent to U.S. producers to increase beef production.
While all that has been going on, we’ve continued our efforts to see the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act, landmark ag-labor legislation, become law. The election-year calendar makes passage in 2026 a challenge; but we’re doing our best to ensure that when the political moment for real reform arrives, Congress knows that change is needed and that a powerful coalition won’t settle for anything less than progress.
Since the June 30 introduction of the bill, which would finally grant dairy farms meaningful access to the H-2A visa program and make that program more workable, we have:
- Coordinated more than 100 Capitol Hill meetings with lawmakers to advocate for SAWA’s passage as part of our state associations summit.
- Sent a letter along with eight of our member cooperatives and nearly all state dairy associations among the more than 450 agriculture groups, businesses and associations who collectively urged SAWA passage on Aug. 10.
- Joined Western Growers in hosting acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling in New Mexico to discuss the ag labor crisis. The Aug. 14 visit included a tour to DFA member John DeRuyter’s dairy outside of Las Cruces. Sonderling will be a critical voice in getting the Trump administration’s support in securing H-2A reforms.
- Been active on social media in showing the need for the bill and making folks aware of how important this legislation is. That social media campaign will be expanded in September as it complements a broader, agriculture wide effort to show support for Thompson other leaders for positive change.
- And finally, our Advocacy Alert is drawing both dairy farmers and their allies into the debate.
With each passing year, the idea that Washington slows down in August is increasingly a relic of a bygone era. The world is too connected, the conflicts too intense, the needs too real and urgent to pause. And if Washington doesn’t, we don’t either. These have been just a few of the ways we’ve served our members during the “recess.” And a challenging fall awaits.
U.S. trade policy has changed significantly since the United States last passed a new free trade agreement (FTA), all the way back in 2011. During the past decade, securing new agricultural market access has become more difficult as it has been frustrated at times by both a lack of support in Washington, D.C., as well as an unwillingness from our trading partners to engage in earnest negotiations.
