Owens to fight dairy imports

WASHINGTON — Rep. William L. Owens has joined the dairy industry's calls against more open trade with New Zealand, saying U.S. farmers have more to lose than to gain.

Mr. Owens, D-Plattsburgh, is collecting colleagues' signatures on a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk urging consideration of dairy farmers as the Obama administration negotiates a trans-Pacific trade deal with New Zealand and several other countries.

Lobbyists for U.S. dairy farmers are urging the administration to leave dairy products out of any agreement.

"New York dairy farmers and the U.S. dairy industry as a whole face a severe pricing crisis. Any future trade agreement that puts the already vulnerable dairy industry at a disadvantage could deal an insurmountable blow to New York dairy farmers," Mr. Owens wrote. "We strongly urge that any trade agreement with New Zealand take these factors into account."

New Zealand and Australia, which also is part of the negotiations, are two countries that especially concern U.S. dairy producers because of their robust dairy exports and relatively low costs of producing milk. Additionally, one company — Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd. — controls more than 90 percent of dairy production in New Zealand, said Shawna Morris, vice president for trade policy at the National Milk Producers Federation, which represents U.S. farmer-owned bargaining cooperatives.

With its control of the New Zealand industry, Fonterra also controls about 40 percent of global dairy trade, meaning a dairy trade deal likely would benefit New Zealand rather than the United States, Mr. Owens wrote.

Advocates for U.S. farmers have been pressing the U.S. Trade Representative's Office to steer clear of any free-trade policies on dairy products from the trans-Pacific deal, including a meeting last week between Mr. Kirk and the NMPF, Ms. Morris said. "We think that the points are not lost on them," she said.

Losses for dairy farmers would dwarf any benefit to U.S. agriculture, she said.

Only a full exclusion of dairy products from the trade deal will satisfy the NMPF, Ms. Morris said.

She said the trade representative's office gave no indication it would honor that request but added, "We realize it's extremely early in the discussions."