The US Dairy Export Council is finding it hard to "moo-ve" their product overseas.
As a result the council, along with the National Milk Producers Federation, has filed a list of trade barrier measures with the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR.) The council hopes these measures will be included in the annual "2009 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers," a companion piece to the president's Trade Policy Agenda.
Among their complaints:
"The China wall: Barriers erected against U.S. exports include the country's new standards for whey permeate, whey protein concentrate and whey protein isolate. The USDEC says they aren't based on sound scientific principles and may not be in compliance with China's obligations under the World Trade Organization.
Mexican milk: Mexico has restrictive levels of Vitamin D fortification for milk which are far lower than those of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. "These unnecessarily restrictive limits pose a challenge to those wishing to export milk to Mexico.
Changing Canadian cheese: Canada recently changed the composition standards for cheese. Since going into effect at end of 2008, these new measures have significantly dampened demand among Canadian dairy processors for U.S. ingredients that had previously been used to manufacture cheese in the country. USDEC contends Canada's actions "are clearly in violation of its international trade obligations under the WTO and the North American Free Trade Agreement."
Other trade barriers cited include unwarranted health certificate requirements in Algeria, unfounded sanitary requirements in India, and requiring companies exporting animal-derived products to Indonesia to divulge proprietary information."
Read their complete complaints at the American Agriculturalist.
On the Flipside...
The CATO institute's Downsizing Government reports that the US subsidizes dairy export and imposes import barriers, in the form of tariff rate quotas, limiting access to the US by foreign dairy producers.
Specifically:
"4. Trade Barriers. Imports of dairy products to the United States are limited by "tariff rate quotas," which are complex tariffs that vary by product and import volume. From the government’s perspective, trade barriers are a logical complement to dairy price supports and marketing orders, which are intended to keep domestic prices artificially high. Without import barriers, U.S. consumers could simply purchase lower-priced foreign dairy products. Thus, to reform dairy markets, both domestic controls and import barriers need to be removed.
5. Export Subsidies. The Dairy Export Incentive program was introduced in 1985 to provide cash subsidies to U.S. dairy producers who sell in foreign markets. Because U.S. dairy policies keep domestic prices above world prices, producers would otherwise have little interest in selling abroad. Thus, the rationale for dairy export subsidies is that they compensate for disincentives caused by other dairy programs."
What do you think? Does the USDEC have a case, or is it just a case of the pot calling the kettle black?
