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Colombia imposes additional tariffs on U.S. milk powder imports

Colombia has moved to impose additional tariffs on U.S. milk powder imports.

Jaime Castenada with the National Milk Producers Federation and U.S. Dairy Export Council tells Brownfield the one-month period of filing counter-arguments has passed, and their government issued a statement this week. “The Ministry of Trade announcing that they will impose a preliminary additional 4.86%, so what it means is actually that’s in addition to any duties that we have in Colombia.”

Castenada says there is currently a 4% tariff on U.S. products, which according to the existing free trade agreement is supposed to be phased out by 2026.  He says the action is politically motivated, violates the trade agreement, and is not based on facts. “The Colombians have not been able to prove any damage to their local producers. They have not been able to produce any substantiation to our milk powder (being subsidized).”

Castenada says the action by Colombia puts additional tariffs on U.S. milk powders for at least the next four months, but likely longer than that. “They may in four months conclude that actually, they have seen all of the evidence and they may actually impose those tariffs for the next five years.”

Castenada says most milk powder sent to Colombia is used for food manufacturing, and very little gets reconstituted into fluid milk, so the only people that might benefit from the tariffs are a handful of larger domestic producers.  He says the U.S. government needs to take swift and serious action against Colombia, since their leftist government has made it difficult for U.S. beef, poultry, ethanol, and now dairy products to enter their market, despite having a free trade agreement.

AUDIO: Jaime Castenada discusses the Colombian dairy tariff issues with Brownfield’s Larry Lee