Milk Processors Will Be in Seattle

November 22, 1999

The International Dairy Foods Association will send an 11-person delegation to the World Trade Organization ministerial conference in Seattle next week to push for more open agricultural markets that are important to the dairy industry. The Seattle sessions are important, says IDFA, because they affect the "momentum" of subsequent negotiations.

"The success of this WTO negotiating round will heavily depend on strong U.S. leadership, including active support by the U.S. private sector," says IDFA President and CEO E. Linwood Tipton. "IDFA will be in Seattle because the success or failure of this meeting will affect the momentum of the negotiations that follow. The decisions made during these upcoming talks will have a major impact on the U.S. food industry. We will continue to press for the opening of international markets because of the tremendous benefits it will bring to efficient producers like the U.S. dairy industry."

IDFA's top priorities include the elimination of agricultural export subsidies and both tariff and non-tariff dairy trade barriers. Extensive export subsidies artificially depress world prices and have enabled the European Union to capture more than 40$ of world trade, says the association.

The U.S.-China agreement on China's accession to the WTO "only increased the importance of the WTO and this next round of negotiations," says Janet Nuzum, vice president and general counsel. "The implications of including the world's most populous nation in the WTO are enormous. "

IDFA will not be alone. World Trade Organization officials said over 700 non-governmental organizations (NGOs, in trade parlance) have registered to attend. U.S. sugar producers, for example, plan to send over 40 representatives, an industry source said.