NMPF, USDEC Testify on USMCA Dairy Priorities at USTR Hearing

NMPF and USDEC Executive Vice President for Trade Policy and Global Affairs Shawna Morris testified today before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), urging the administration to leverage the 2026 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) Review to ensure that the agreement’s anticipated benefits for U.S. dairy producers and exporters are fully achieved.

“USMCA is a critical agreement for the U.S. dairy community,” said Morris at the hearing. “It’s crucial that the Review address targeted implementation problems with Mexico and Canada to create an even stronger agreement that will be up to the task of facilitating U.S.-Mexico-Canadian trade for years to come.”

Throughout her testimony, Morris highlighted a few key priorities, including combatting Canada’s continued manipulation of its administration of dairy tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) that denies U.S. exporters the meaningful market access guaranteed under USMCA. She also focused on Canada’s circumvention of USMCA dairy protein export disciplines has resulted in continued offloading of low-priced dairy proteins, undercutting U.S. products in both domestic and global markets.