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Milk Protein Concentrate (MPC) Imports
Milk protein concentrate is being used in a variety of food and beverage products in the U.S.—including in the production of cheese, where federal standards limit the use of MPC to those cheeses which do not have an official standard of identity. Imports of the dried form of MPC into the U.S. have increased greatly in recent years, from 10,297 metric tons in 1995, to 54,725 tons in 1999, to 52,118 tons during the first three quarters of 2000, according to USDA data.
The primary exporters of MPC to the U.S. are the European Union, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Imported milk proteins consist primarily of ultrafiltered concentrates, and also casein. "When the existing trade agreements regulating market access for dairy imports were reached in 1994, milk protein concentrate wasn't technologically a concern to the U.S. dairy sector.
What has happened since then is an unabated surge of MPC imports into this country. While dried, imported forms of MPC are allowed to be used for some food processing purposes, our concern is that current U.S. trade laws are not able to account for the fact that some MPC is displacing domestic dairy ingredients in ways that were not considered during the Uruguay Round of the World Trade Organization seven years ago. So, in addition to seeking trade remedies under the U.S. Trade Act, options for addressing the issue would be using section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974 - the so-called Escape Clause—to permit the President to provide relief to a U.S. industry where an International Trade Commission (ITC) investigation has found that imports of an article are "a substantial cause of serious injury, or the threat thereof, to the domestic industry producing an article like or directly competitive with the imported article"; 2. Using Section 301, also a provision of the Trade Act of 1974, which authorizes the U.S. Trade Representative to retaliate against any unjustifiable, unreasonable or discriminatory act or policy of a foreign country. This includes situations involving predatory pricing or discriminatory pricing; 3. Using antidumping laws, which impose additional duties on imports that are sold in the United States at a price that is below that producer's sales price in the country of origin, or at a price that is lower than the cost of production, or; 4. Using countervailing measures to investigate whether foreign government subsidies that provide financial assistance to benefit the producers or exporters of milk protein concentrate are injuring the U.S. dairy industry into how much MPC is being imported in the U.S., and how the products are being used. That report is due later this year.
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I want to write my Congressional representative about this issue. |