ARLINGTON, VA (NMPF-Oct. 3, 2019) — “Subsidies and barriers that handicap U.S. businesses in the global marketplace by violating international trade commitments shouldn’t be tolerated. We strongly support the World Trade Organization’s imposition of $7.5 billion in retaliatory duties on European products, including dairy foods, to prod the EU to uphold its World Trade Organization commitments and reinforce the importance of two-way trade.
“NMPF strongly endorses the U.S. Trade Representative’s new list of European dairy exports that will now face higher tariffs, including cheeses, yogurt and butter.
“The U.S. is running a $1.6 billion dairy trade deficit with Europe because of unfair EU trade practices that block our access to their market while they enjoy broad access to ours.
“Trade authorities should also address one particularly egregious example of EU trade practices: the EU’s abusing the use of geographical indications to limit competition from cheese exporters in the U.S. that use common food names. Rather than compete head-to-head with high-quality American-made foods by allowing the use of common food names to coexist alongside GIs relating to those products, Europe instead blocks sales of these everyday food products from the United States and aggressively pressures other countries to do the same.
“The retaliatory tariffs announced are a clarion call for fair trade and an indication that trade must be a two-way trade. What better way to reduce the U.S. trade deficit with Europe than by selling them award-winning US cheeses?”
Note: Today the World Trade Organization announced the size of the retaliatory tariffs on EU goods the U.S. may levy in response to illegal EU subsidies to Airbus. These tariffs may continue until the EU brings its policies into compliance with WTO rules.