October 15, 2010

USDA seeks advice on dairy import licensing

The USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) announced that it is seeking comments on a proposed regulation that would temporarily suspend reduction provisions on certain licenses of the Dairy Import Licensing Programme.

Import licensing is one of the tools USDA uses to administer the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) system for US imports of dairy products. For dairy products subject to TRQs, an import license from FAS is generally required to bring in items at the low-tier tariff rate.

Some licensees have not been able to import the full amounts of certain licensed items because of changes in cheese production and consumption.

The proposed regulation would allow licensees to maintain their current license amounts without having their license amount reduced. No license is required to import products at the high-tier tariff rate.