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Cheese Importers Declare the Dairy Import Assessment an Unfair Tax
on Importers That Delivers No Benefits and Unnecessarily Jeopardizes
U.S. Dairy Exports
The Cheese Importers Association of America (CIAA) expressed its strong
opposition to the Bush Administation's proposed Dairy Import Assessment
as part of the 2007 Farm Bill.
"The Dairy Import Assessment would impose an onerous tax on the small
businesses that import the high-quality cheese products that U.S.
consumers demand. These funds would then be turned over to support a
promotion program operated and controlled by dairy farmers and
exporters, from which we would see no benefits", said CIAA President
Daniel Lynch, Cheif Executive Officer of Jana Foods, LLC in Secaucus,
New Jersey.
"With dairy exports having doubled in the last five years and with our
trade representatives seeking lower global barriers to agricultural
trade, this is precisely the wrong moment to erect yet another
unilateral barrier to imported dairy products", Lynch continued.
This week the CIAA is delivering letters signed by a broad
cross-section of its members to House Agriculture Committee Chairman
Collin Peterson (D-MN), House Ways & Means Committee Chairman
Charles Rangel (D-NY), Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin
(D-IA), and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT)
expressing their strong opposition to the proposed tax and its
inclusion in the Farm Bill.
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