US Dairy Industry Not Satisfied With Initial US-Japan Deal, Associations Say
Two U.S. dairy industry associations thanked the Trump administration for signing an initial trade deal with Japan but cautioned that more work has to be done to appease the industry.
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While the agreement will “improve upon today’s status quo,” it is “essential that the U.S. secure further market openings and assurances in the second stage of negotiations,” Tom Vilsack, president and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, said in a statement.
Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation, said the U.S. needs to negotiate “further inroads into Japan” to compete with access granted to the European Union and New Zealand. This “is not the end of the road though,” Mulhern said in a statement, “it’s the first leg of the journey.” Similarly, the International Dairy Foods Association called the agreement a “first step … and we hope the next step comes quickly.”
The messages from the U.S. dairy industry were in sharp contrast to the overwhelmingly positive responses from other industry associations, such as the National Pork Producers Council, the Corn Refiners Association, the U.S. Meat Export Federation and others (see 1909250052). In a Sept. 20 letter to the U.S. trade representative, five Democratic senators expressed concerns that the agreement would not provide sufficient market access for U.S. dairy exporters (see 1909230051).