Letter to Ambassador Lambrinidis - Rep. Katko Leads Push to Protect Local Dairy Farmers from Restrictive EU Trade Policies

Letter

Ambassador Lambrinidis:

Thank you for your commitment to advancing the transatlantic relationship. We share this commitment and appreciate the recent steps that have been taken to strengthen the U.S.-E.U. trading relationship.

Since taking office, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack have engaged with their European counterparts in an effort to renew our trading ties, deescalate recent tariff stand-offs, and address various issues. As these collaborative steps continue, we write to emphasize the importance of ensuring U.S. food and agriculture products receive fair and continued access to European markets.

Specifically, we are concerned with the staunch inflexibility the European Commission has maintained throughout this year regarding new entry certificate requirements for U.S. exports of food and agriculture products, including meat and dairy products. Currently, European policy makes exports of these products extremely difficult while EU member states enjoy robust access to the U.S. market. No fact more clearly demonstrates the asymmetry in our food and agricultural trade relationship than the fact that direct U.S. dairy exports to the EU, totaling approximately US$100 million annually, are less than 1/10th the amount of dairy exported annually from Europe to the United States.

The Commission's decision to impose new export certificate requirements--set to take effect on August 21st--on meat and dairy exporters exemplifies not only frequent changes in EU policymaking, but also the EU's unduly prescriptive approach to the regulation of agricultural trade which creates a looming cloud of uncertainty over whether access to the EU market will abruptly close. Prescriptive process rules for how importers must demonstrate the safety of their products are unduly restrictive and undermine progress in advancing the transatlantic trade relationship.

We seek your personal involvement for satisfactorily resolving these matters quickly, including by reconsidering these burdensome requirements and in the meantime delaying their effective date, so that U.S. exporters can assure their buyers that affected products will be available. These products include therapeutic foods for newborns and those receiving hospital care, as well as products for our military stationed throughout Europe.

With this letter, we ask for a meeting with you to discuss actionable steps you can take toward swift resolution of this important trade policy matter.

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