Host of lobbying interests oppose extending milk-promotion fee to importers of dairy products

"On its face it looks like a slam-dunk: Imports of dairy products should be paying for promotion just the way milk produced in the United States is subject to a mandatory assessment to build markets," and the Department of Agriculture proposes to do so, Steve Taylor writes for Lancaster Farming. But in Washington and the dairy business, change is almost always complicated.

"Not so fast, say a mix of foreign governments, cheese importers, U.S. food manufacturers, global agribusinesses, anti-government waste groups and individual dairy farmers, some of whom have long opposed all mandatory promotion checkoff schemes," Taylor writes. The opponents "raise constitutional issues over the lack of a referendum for importers such as was provided for domestic producers, among many other concerns."

Wisconsin dairy interests fear the change would end the state's "long and successful history of promoting Wisconsin cheese," because the new rule "would prevent any U.S.-specific promotional element that would seem to discriminate against any import. The state’s cheesemakers would have to accept that their products were no better than generic cheeses from anywhere," dairy farmer Pat Boettcher told Taylor, former agriculture commissioner in New Hampshire. (Read more)