U.S. set to enact fee on dairy importers

WASHINGTON — The federal government announced this week that it soon will start charging importers of dairy products a fee to support dairy-promotion programs, a move long sought by farm groups but opposed by U.S. companies that import dairy ingredients for various foods.

The government will charge 7.5 cents for each 100 pounds of imported product. The fee applies to traditional dairy foods as well as to some products that contain dairy.

Groups representing dairy farmers have sought the fee for years, complaining that U.S. farmers must pay such fees but imported products come into the country without any such assessment.

Congress approved the fee in 2002 as part of a five-year farm bill covering agricultural and nutrition programs. Lawmakers changed the requirement somewhat in the 2008 farm bill, dictating that it could be implemented only if the government determined it did not break trade obligations.

The Bush administration had declined to implement it, but the Obama administration reversed that decision. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced final regulations to make the fee a reality.

The International Dairy Foods Association criticized the move, and the National Milk Producers Federation welcomed it. The IDFA represents companies such as Kraft Foods and Dean Foods, and the NMPF represents farmer-owned cooperatives such as Dairylea Inc., Syracuse.

"It's been a long time in coming, but we've finally achieved a degree of fairness in the area of dairy promotion between domestic milk production and imports. Dairy importers, who benefit from the world's largest dairy market, need to help pay to expand that market, the same way that our farmers do," said Jerome Kozak, CEO of the NMPF, in a news release.

The CEO of the IDFA, Connie Tipton, said in a statement, "This international tax does not help expand our U.S. dairy export markets and has been widely opposed by our trading partners."

Critics of the proposal have said it could allow importers to use the promotion programs to their advantage, boosting imports at the expense of domestic milk.