The ITC, an independent nonpartisan, factfinding agency, recently released the report as part of an ongoing series of reports on thousands of products imported into and exported from the United States. The following are other highlights from the report. The United States is a small, but increasingly important, participant in international dairy markets, and its share of world markets is expected to rise in the future. Reforms contained in the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 and globalization of dairy markets under the Uruguay Round Agreements should make U.S. dairy products more competitive internationally.
International trade is relatively small in comparison to the domestic market.
Imports, over 90 percent of which were cheese and casein, constitute only 2 percent of U.S. consumption of all dairy products. Major suppliers are the European Union, New Zealand, and Australia. Exports account for less than 1 percent of U.S. annual production of dairy products, with the principal markets being Mexico, Japan, and Canada. World trade in dairy products is highly restricted as a result of both tariff and nontariff measures. Under the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture, the United States agreed to convert its section 22 quotas to minimum access guarantees and tariff-rate quotas.