Dairy Producers Link WTO Support to Goals

December 1, 1999

U.S. dairy producers say their support of the World Trade Organization negotiations is linked to whether certain trade "disparities" among nations are resolved. "An incomplete or poorly balanced agreement will hurt dairy farmers much more than no agreement at all," says the National Milk Producers Federation.

Dairy producers want the elimination of all trade subsidies. NMPF is urging U.S. officials to push other nations to reduce their use of dairy export subsidies that effectively lower world prices for dairy products and rob the United States of export markets.

"American dairy producers can compete with their peers in the world market if we're given a level playing field, " says Tom Camerlo, NMPF president, "But export subsidies, high tariffs and non-tariff measures and the presence of monopolistic state trading enterprises, all of these have negatively impacted our ability to grow our share of the world dairy market. That's why the Seattle round of the WTO will be crucial to our future."

The United Stats cannot compete, "dollar for dollar, with other countries that are willing to buy a market for their products" with export subsidies, says Camerlo. "We need to remove the disparities in trade practices among nations."

In addition to supporting subsidy reductions and the removal of non-trade barriers, dairy producers consider sanitary-phytosanitary measures of special importance. They do not want the talks opened to consideration of social or economic considerations as a basis for applying SPS measures.

"We know that some countries will be pushing to block future approval of foods created through biotechnology, even though there's no scientific evidence that such products are unsafe," says Camerlo. "We can't allow these talks to become a forum on genetically modified organisms that have already demonstrated their safety and efficacy."