Congress
Has Yet To Act on Identical Bills in the House (H.R. 1786) and Senate (S. 847)
that will Apply Tariffs on Imports of Dairy Proteins, including Milk Protein Concentrate
(MPC) and casein. The
Price that Dairy Farmers Receive has been Driven Down to Near-Record Low Levels
by a Surge of Imported Dairy Proteins. This
is a Crucial Election Year Issue for Dairy Farmers. And, Time is Rapidly Running
Out on the 2002 Congressional Session. So, Please Contact Immediately Your Members
of the House and Senate and Ask Them to Cosponsor H.R. 1786 and S. 847! The
National Grange joins the Dairy Producers for Fair Trade coalition in support
of H.R. 1786. This is an issue affecting the livelihood of America's 75,000 dairy
farm families because domestic prices have been depressed by imports displacing
domestically produced products. Because of the lack of tariffs on imports, dairy
producers in the U.S. are burdened with weak commodity prices that do not sufficiently
cover their costs of production. Over the past five years, yearly imports of MPC
have risen to 350-400 million pounds, displacing 4 to 4.6 billion pounds of U.S.
domestic milk production. This
legislation will not create a shortage of any product in the United States. In
virtually all cases, MPC can be replaced with skim milk powder, while casein imports
will remain about the same due to the compensation provision. In addition, the
United States will begin the production of these products if the demand cannot
be met with existing supplies of skim milk powder. This
legislation is consistent with our World Trade Organization commitments, and allows
the U.S. government to renegotiate dairy tariffs with our trade partners, providing
them with reasonable compensation. Action
Plan --- Please contact your members of the House and Senate and urge them
to support H.R. 1786 and S. 847. If you have any questions or comments please
contact Legislative Research Analyst Chil-Sook
Hwang by fax: 202 347-1091 or by phone 1-888-4GRANGE, ext 109. Thank
you for your grassroots participation in the National Grange Legislative program.
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