Got milk-like concentrate? Sen. Clinton wants Customs to get tougher

Albany Business Journal ^ | Tuesday, Nov 26, 2002 | Staff

[Dixie Mom]

Got milk-like concentrate? Sen. Clinton wants Customs to get tougher

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) wants the U.S. Customs Service to get tougher on companies that import powdered milk-like "milk protein concentrate" that compete with New York dairy farmer's products.

To get around high tariffs on nonfat dry milk, foreign companies blend powdered milk with casein and other dairy proteins and call it milk protein concentrate. These concentrates are subject to smaller tariffs so companies avoid paying higher taxes on what is essentially the same product, Clinton said in a letter sent Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner.

"This deliberate deception should leave a sour taste in our mouths as it hurts dairy farmers and adds to the federal government's cost of dairy support programs," Clinton said in a written statement.

Clinton joined with other members of Congress in urging the Customs Service to rethink its definition of a milk protein blend. Reclassifying these milk products would increase their tariff by a factor of nine, Clinton's statement said.

New York dairy farmers have been faced with unusually low milk prices. The price of a hundred pounds of drinking milk was $12.40 in September, down $4.20 from September 2001. Increasing the price of foreign dry milk, used in a variety of food products, would make New York milk more competitive.

[Dixie Mom]

I have a hard time believing that 'powdered milk-like "milk protein concentrate"' is seriously encroaching on the competitiveness of farm fresh dairy products.

[billorites]

I guess it depends on what the meaning of "milk protein concentrate" is.

[Paul Atreides]

Get a load of Hillary talking about "deliberate deception!" She is so November 4th.

[vbmoneyspender]

isn't it time to get rid of the Commerce clause in the Constitution along with the clause that prevents states from unilaterally imposing tariffs on goods produced out of state. I'm sure that if states were encouraged to impose tariffs on goods produced in other states, this would improve the standard of living for all Americans. In fact, since tariffs are a good thing, why not let individual cities impose tariffs on good produced in other cities.</sarcasm off>

[exit82]

Obviously, the queen of the cattle futures market has put her finger in the wind and ascertained that the upstate folks are none too happy with her as of late. Here is her sop to them that she actually is doing something on their behalf.

The first time she heard of "milk protein concentrate" was when she signed the letter.

[CPOSharky]

Why doesn't the senator worry about making it less expensive to produce New York milk?

OH, sorry. That would mean that she couldn't blame somebody else and she would actually have to do something.

[BfloGuy]

Yeah, Hillary knows that she's pretty popular everywhere in NYS except in the country.

The problem is that New York's dairy farmers can't make it without government support -- this is tailor-made for her highness.

I live upstate and am the son of an upstate dairy farmer. That said, it's time to end the milk price supports and the silly, technical tariffs against this or that dry milk additive and let the dairy farmers find other crops or other jobs.

[MinuteGal]

Look out, Sir Jim Jeffords. Looks like Hillary is picking up your fallen lance as the dairy farmer's best bud.

It's a little cold out there in Siberia......er.....Vermont, isn't it, Jumpin' Jimbo?

Leni

[weikel]

isn't it time to get rid of the Commerce clause in the Constitution

Im in favor of modifying it to say that "the US will be a big free trade zone and local pols who try to screw with this will be hanged" and eliminate the pernicious Wilson/FDR intrepratation of the commerce clause which allows the FedGov to have all its bs regulations.

[TransOxus]

How generous of The First Doormat to protect the right of Slick Willie to be milked by fat cows in thongs! Was her excuse sour taste?

[TigersEye]

Another way to look at this is that Hitlery wants to make dried milk-like products too expensive for poor black mothers to buy for their chirren. The ones that can't afford fresh milk in the first place. It's for the Hil-Pac.

[speekinout]

Another way to look at this is that Hitlery wants to make dried milk-like products too expensive for poor black mothers to buy for their chirren.

And then we can increase welfare payments, and taxes on everyone except people who make their money in other countries like her husband of record does.

[Doctor Raoul]

"This deliberate deception should leave a sour taste in our mouths as it hurts dairy farmers and adds to the federal government's cost of dairy support programs," Clinton said in a written statement.

"Honey, she's just a child I'm ministering to" is another deliberate deception that probably left a sour taste in her mouth too.

[Hitlerys uterus]

[SKI NOW]

"That said, it's time to end the milk price supports and the silly, technical tariffs against this or that dry milk additive and let the dairy farmers find other crops or other jobs."

Very true. But that kind of talk does not empower Hitlery and her ilk.