Tag: trade policy

Port Labor Strife Resolution Welcomed

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

Following engagement from NMPF and USDEC with the Biden Administration and the then-incoming Trump team, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and United States Maritime Alliance reached a tentative six-year contract on Jan. 8 for the United States’ East and Gulf Coast ports, avoiding a damaging strike for dairy exporters.

While the agreement is still pending ILA ratification, the deal averted a strike that was authorized to begin on Jan. 15.

The agreement came after NMPF, USDEC, and more than 50 additional leading U.S. agriculture organizations sent letters to President Biden and then President-elect Trump on Dec. 19, calling for the federal government to help ensure a lasting resolution to the labor negotiations that had reached a stalemate.

In the letters, NMPF and the co-signers detailed the extensive damage that resulted from the previous strike, which lasted from Oct. 1-3. Initially, shipments were paused to prevent a backlog and then proceeded at a below average pace once the ILA agreed to extend their existing contract until Jan. 15, 2025. An estimated $13.5 million in U.S. dairy exports were affected, with members reporting cancelled sales and costly reroutes due to the disruptions.

NMPF engaged with USDA leading up to the contract deadline in January, sharing dairy exporter needs and urging the administration to avoid any potential port labor strikes.

NMPF Works to Mitigate Port Strike Disruptions

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

A port workers strike that threatened millions in U.S. dairy exports was successfully limited Oct. 4, after NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) called on the Biden Administration to intervene in the port workers strike.

NMPF and USDEC in an Oct. 1 joint statement and Oct. 2 industry letter co-signed by more than 270  agricultural, manufacturing, retail and additional supply chain stakeholders helped apply pressure on the negotiating parties, who agreed to resume work on Oct. 4.

More than $4.5 million in U.S. dairy exports moved through east and gulf coast ports in 2023 and a work stoppage forced exporters to cancel shipments and undertake costly reroutes. NMPF and USDEC relayed information between exporters and USDA to highlight and address storage and rerouting challenges as a result of the strike.

The International Longshoremen’s Association reached a tentative agreement with the United States Maritime Alliance to suspend the strike and resume normal operations on Oct. 3. NMPF and USDEC welcomed the end to the strike and pressed both parties to come to a long-term agreement before the current contract extension expires on Jan. 15, 2025.

NMPF’s Morris Touts Dairy on Panel with Top Federal Ag Trade Officials

Posted on by Theresa Sweeney

Shawna Morris, NMPF’s Senior Vice President of Trade Policy, moderated a July 12 trade policy panel with U.S. Chief Agricultural Negotiator Doug McKalip and USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Alexis Taylor at the annual U.S. Agricultural Export Development Council conference in McLean, VA.

Morris underlined the importance of exports for the U.S. agricultural industry and highlighted the ways that the Biden Administration can work with the industry to make progress in opening new markets. Morris and Tony Rice, NMPF’s Trade Policy Manager, joined USDEC staff in a series of meetings with USDA Foreign Agricultural Service attachés during the conference to brief them on dairy trade issues specific to the attachés’ markets around the world.

NMPF and USDEC also organized a July 7 letter with 22 other leading agricultural organizations to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai ahead of the July 9-15 Indo-Pacific Economic Framework negotiations. The letter points out American agriculture’s preference for resuming comprehensive trade negotiations, spells out the agricultural industry’s priorities for the negotiations including securing specific commitments on common name protections, burdensome facility listing and certification requirements, and sanitary and phytosanitary barriers to trade.