Dairy and Trade issues

Trade remains a hot topic. Without new agreements, tariffs are set to rise, and Chris Galen, National Milk Producers Federation, Senior Vice President of membership and governance, says there is a lot at stake for the dairy industry.

“Most of the other top 10 export markets for us, dairy products have come to terms with the Trump administration. There may not be a lot of details in what those terms are, but for the most part, the major players in the global scene have recognized the need to have some sort of a deal with the administration, and that's already happened, but there are some major exceptions. Again, Mexico, Canada, China at the top of the list, and those talks are ongoing, so we will see what happens with them this summer.”

Galen says talks with the European Union are still in the framework stage, and several unresolved details could pose challenges for the US dairy industry.

“Our big concern there with the European Union has been constraining their well, two things, one is for us to export more of their different dairy products, because there's a huge imbalance in the trade. They send us a lot more things like cheese and butter than we send over there. And then the other thing we're trying to do with Europe is that they are using these common food name restrictions as a means of keeping other countries from allowing us to use terms like feta or parmesan and other cheeses as well, and so that we feel has to be addressed.”

Chris Galen with the National Milk Producers Federation.