Dairy Industry Leader Testifies Before Congress on USMCA Dairy Priorities
CONTACTS:
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Luke Waring, USDEC |
ARLINGTON, VA – Michael Lichte, Chief Insights and Optimization Officer for Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), testified today before the House Committee on Agriculture on the importance of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to U.S. dairy and the need for strengthening dairy implementation and enforcement during the agreement's forthcoming joint review. Lichte served as a witness representing the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) as a board member and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) as a director.
"Export demand now accounts for 17 percent of total U.S. milk production and has become one of the primary drivers of incremental growth across the dairy sector," Lichte said. "For DFA and the U.S. dairy industry broadly, USMCA remains one of the most consequential trade agreements affecting long-term competitiveness, manufacturing investment, and farm-level economic stability. That’s why it’s essential that we strengthen and renew it."
Mexico and Canada together account for more than 40 percent of all U.S. dairy exports by value. Lichte's testimony focused on Canada's administration of its dairy tariff-rate quotas in a manner that limits trade and its circumvention of USMCA export disciplines for dairy proteins, while also highlighting the importance of preserving U.S. exporters’ ability to use common cheese names like “feta” in Mexico.
On Canada, Lichte documented chronic underfill of negotiated dairy tariff-rate quotas, with cumulative fill rates reaching only 64 percent for industrial-use cheese, 34 percent for fluid milk, and just 7 percent for skim milk powder through 2025. He also detailed Canada's growing use of alternative tariff classifications to move surplus dairy proteins into U.S. and global markets in ways that evade USMCA's dairy protein export caps, a practice confirmed by a May 2026 U.S. International Trade Commission report.
"The underlying market distortions USMCA sought to discipline continue to affect U.S. manufacturers and global dairy protein markets," Lichte added. "With appropriate enforcement and modernization, USMCA can continue supporting investment, export growth, and economic opportunity for the United States' dairy farmers and processors for generations to come."
A link to the written testimony can be found here.
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The U.S. Dairy Export Council is a non-profit, independent membership organization that represents the global trade interests of U.S. dairy producers, proprietary processors and cooperatives, ingredient suppliers and export traders. Its mission is to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and assist the U.S. industry to increase its global dairy ingredient sales and exports of U.S. dairy products. USDEC accomplishes this through programs in market development that build global demand for U.S. dairy products, resolve market access barriers and advance industry trade policy goals. USDEC is supported by staff across the United States and overseas in Mexico, South America, Asia, Middle East and Europe. The U.S. Dairy Export Council prohibits discrimination on the basis of age, disability, national origin, race, color, religion, creed, gender, sexual orientation, political beliefs, marital status, military status, and arrest or conviction record. www.usdec.org.