Milk prices have declined for five straight years, and per-capita milk consumption in the U.S. has fallen, or remained flat, every year since 1985.
In Pennsylvania, dairy is the largest segment of the agricultural economy, generating $14.7 billion in annual revenue, according to the Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association.
For dairy farmers, the time is right for gaining expanded access to the Canadian dairy market, just one measure provided by the pending U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.
USMCA is a trade agreement that would replace NAFTA. It’s been signed by all three countries, but has only been ratified by Mexico.
Berks County dairy farmer Phoebe Bitler, co-owner of Vista Grande Farms in Richmond Township, wants to see Congress pass USMCA because it will strengthen the U.S. relationship with Mexico, which she notes is the country’s top dairy customer.
“My father began our dairy operation in 1936, milking 19 cows by hand,” Bitler wrote in a letter to the editor published Oct. 3 in the Reading Eagle. “Our farm and others like it across the state depend on international markets to sell the products made from the milk our cows produce,” according to Bitler.
Congress is attempting to reach a deal on the stumbling blocks of USMCA — namely, measures affecting labor and the environment, according to National Law Review’s website, natlawreview.com.
One of the main issues is simplifying the paperwork required to export products to Canada and Mexico. This is critical because more than half of the value of U.S. agricultural production goes to these two countries, according to agprofessional.com. In Pennsylvania, it’s even higher, with 60 percent of Pennsylvania’s agricultural exports going to Canada and Mexico, according to a 2016 American Farm Bureau study.
As for Canada, a key part of USMCA calls for our neighbors to the north to eliminate their program that allows low-priced dairy ingredients to undersell U.S. dairy sales.
In her Oct. 3 letter to the editor, Bitler called for Congress to quickly ratify USMCA, which she says will “open new doors for American-made dairy products in Canada.”
Increasing dairy exports will lead to more jobs and make our rural communities stronger, the farmer says.
But time is running out.
“The USMCA ratification must happen this year in the U.S. or wait until after 2020 with an impending election season, which would move implementation into early 2021,” according to marketwatch.com.
In the meantime, the original NAFTA continues to govern U.S. trade.