Dairy checkoff fees to apply to imports
March 18, 2011 | 04:41 PM
Dairy importers and producers in Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico will have to pay the checkoff fees that are applied to producers in the 48 continental states under a rule that the Agriculture Department’s Agricultural Marketing Service published in the Federal Register today. The assessment on Alaskan, Hawaii and Puerto Rican producers goes into effect on April 1 and on imports on August 1.
The National Milk Producers Federation praised USDA for releasing the rule, saying that the provision in the 2008 farm bill “has languished for the last three years in regulatory limbo.” National Milk noted that the rule assesses the equivalent of 7.5 cents per hundredweight on all dairy-based imports, including cheese and butter products, as well as dry ingredients such as casein and milk protein concentrates. The money will be collected by the National Dairy Board to be used for nutrition research, consumer education, issues management, and other programs that build demand for dairy consumption.
“It’s been a long time in coming, but we’ve finally achieved a degree of fairness in the area of dairy promotion between domestic milk production and imports,” said NMPF President and CEO Jerry Kozak. “Dairy importers, who benefit from the world’s largest dairy market, need to help pay to expand that market, the same way that our farmers do.”
“While dairy imports enjoy a larger share of the U.S. market compared to where things stood back in 1984,” he continued, “importers haven’t paid a single penny to help promote the market, the way America’s dairy farmers have. It’s time that inconsistency ends. Everyone who benefits from this market should pay part of the tab.”
Kozak also noted that at least 10 other farm commodities have promotion programs that apply their checkoff to imports.
The assessment on imports has a long history. The 2002 farm bill contained the provision, but the importers protested that it did not cover Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, and Congress added them in the 2008 bill.
International Dairy Foods Association CEO Connie Tipton, who opposed the expansion of the assessment, told The Hagstrom Report, “I feel quite good that it has taken nearly 10 years for this to move forward.”
“Most imported dairy products in the U.S. come in under quite restrictive quotas, so it’s hard to argue they can actually benefit from greater demand,” she continued. “But our biggest concern is that this action is so counter to what our future focus for dairy is and should be. We are now exporting much more and importing much less in dairy – and our growth is in increased exports. It doesn’t make sense to me to send a message to our trading partners that we intend to impose new taxes on their products but we expect no counter measures by them.”
In a formal statement, released late today, Tipton said, “This international tax does not help expand our U.S. dairy export markets and has been widely opposed by our trading partners… It's unclear to us why dairy producers are willing to promote dairy imports at a time when U.S. dairy imports are declining and our U.S.exports are growing.”
Tipton said the Bush administration’s decision not to implement the rule had been “pro-trade” and that the Obama administration had reversed it.
National Dairy Promotion and Research Program – Final Rule on Amendments to the Order
The National Milk Producers Federation praised USDA for releasing the rule, saying that the provision in the 2008 farm bill “has languished for the last three years in regulatory limbo.” National Milk noted that the rule assesses the equivalent of 7.5 cents per hundredweight on all dairy-based imports, including cheese and butter products, as well as dry ingredients such as casein and milk protein concentrates. The money will be collected by the National Dairy Board to be used for nutrition research, consumer education, issues management, and other programs that build demand for dairy consumption.
“It’s been a long time in coming, but we’ve finally achieved a degree of fairness in the area of dairy promotion between domestic milk production and imports,” said NMPF President and CEO Jerry Kozak. “Dairy importers, who benefit from the world’s largest dairy market, need to help pay to expand that market, the same way that our farmers do.”
“While dairy imports enjoy a larger share of the U.S. market compared to where things stood back in 1984,” he continued, “importers haven’t paid a single penny to help promote the market, the way America’s dairy farmers have. It’s time that inconsistency ends. Everyone who benefits from this market should pay part of the tab.”
Kozak also noted that at least 10 other farm commodities have promotion programs that apply their checkoff to imports.
The assessment on imports has a long history. The 2002 farm bill contained the provision, but the importers protested that it did not cover Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, and Congress added them in the 2008 bill.
International Dairy Foods Association CEO Connie Tipton, who opposed the expansion of the assessment, told The Hagstrom Report, “I feel quite good that it has taken nearly 10 years for this to move forward.”
“Most imported dairy products in the U.S. come in under quite restrictive quotas, so it’s hard to argue they can actually benefit from greater demand,” she continued. “But our biggest concern is that this action is so counter to what our future focus for dairy is and should be. We are now exporting much more and importing much less in dairy – and our growth is in increased exports. It doesn’t make sense to me to send a message to our trading partners that we intend to impose new taxes on their products but we expect no counter measures by them.”
In a formal statement, released late today, Tipton said, “This international tax does not help expand our U.S. dairy export markets and has been widely opposed by our trading partners… It's unclear to us why dairy producers are willing to promote dairy imports at a time when U.S. dairy imports are declining and our U.S.exports are growing.”
Tipton said the Bush administration’s decision not to implement the rule had been “pro-trade” and that the Obama administration had reversed it.
National Dairy Promotion and Research Program – Final Rule on Amendments to the Order
