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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Tuesday, December 24, 2024
U.S. dairy farmers and exporters are offering a united front against the latest trade threat out of Mexico – proposed new standards that could make it more difficult, and a lot more expensive, to ship hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of cheese south of the border every year.
China, despite economic woes and its battle with COVID-19, is buying more foreign dairy this year, but the increased imports are doing far less for U.S. producers than the industry had hoped for after the “phase one” trade pact went into effect in February.
U.S. dry whey, a key component in swine feed, is just one of the 16 U.S. commodities the Chinese Finance Ministry will exclude from tariffs beginning Sept. 17, according to a Wednesday announcement.
From California to Georgia, farmers can’t find enough workers to harvest their crops or milk their cows. Combined with Congress’s decades-long failure to act on long-promised comprehensive immigration reform, the result is that U.S. consumers are paying more for a less-secure food supply as more production moves south of the Mexican border in search of farm labor.
As federal agents sweep farming operations across the country in search of unauthorized workers, are they targeting agriculture? The government says no, but the farm sector says it's feeling the heat.
If the U.S. and Europe agree to discuss agricultural issues in their upcoming trade negotiations, geographical indications could prove a formidable obstacle to achieving success.
