August 6, 2010

More progress needed for US dairy exports to access China and India

Although the American dairy industry is keen to access the Chinese and Indian markets, the US government so far is not making much progress to remove trade barriers.

That was a message from a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing Wednesday (Aug 4), where Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and others pressed US Trade Ambassador Ron Kirk to do more to open foreign markets.

Gillibrand brought up China, and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., brought up India - a country where Mercer's Dairy from Boonville has struggled to gain access and sought congressional help.

At issue is a certification process that each country devised to govern how it accepts US dairy products. In practice, the measures block US dairy products and are not grounded in sound science, according to critics.

"This is one of the top issues on which we've engaged China," Kirk told Gillibrand. Although the Chinese government has not reversed itself, he said, officials there did agree to delay its implementation while talks continue with the Obama administration. A team from the US Trade Representative's Office will visit there in September, he said.

Gillibrand said she raised the issue out of concern for New York dairy farmers who are trying to recover from persistent low milk prices. Prices crashed in early 2009 and for many remain below the cost of production.

China has been the third top buyer of US dairy products, averaging US$168 million a year, Gillibrand said, before the new certification rules were announced.

As for India, Stabenow said, that country blocks US exports while sending as much as US$77 million a year in milk products to the US.