{"id":1775467,"date":"2022-12-15T06:30:27","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T11:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1775467"},"modified":"2022-12-15T06:35:33","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T11:35:33","slug":"as-mothers-stare-at-empty-shelves-big-dairy-lobbies-to-tax-imported-baby-formula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/as-mothers-stare-at-empty-shelves-big-dairy-lobbies-to-tax-imported-baby-formula\/","title":{"rendered":"As Mothers Stare at Empty Shelves, Big Dairy Lobbies to Tax Imported Baby Formula"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fas-mothers-stare-at-empty-shelves-big-dairy-lobbies-to-tax-imported-baby-formula%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1775467&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Formula_shortage.jpeg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>Nearly a year after the U.S. infant formula shortages began, parents are still struggling to find formula on store shelves, or face purchase limits when they do find their preferred brand. As of mid-November, 34 percent of parents in households with infants had trouble finding formula, U.S. census data <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2022\/12\/04\/baby-formula-shortages-persist-after-biden-fixes\/10795557002\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">show<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Yet despite the hungry babies and ongoing crisis, dairy lobbyists are now telling Congress it\u2019s time to end the emergency waivers issued on foreign brands imported to help alleviate shortages. With the waivers set to expire at the end of this year, the National Milk Producers Federation is asking lawmakers to oppose any effort to extend the waivers, subjecting foreign companies to high tariffs come Jan. 1, 2023. The increased taxes would then likely be passed onto American consumers and\/or slow imports overall. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven that the temporary production shortfall that gripped American families in need of formula earlier this year has abated, we urge Congress to ensure that the unique, unilateral tariff benefits granted to our trading partners under the Formula Act and the Bulk Infant Formula to Retail Shelves Act end as scheduled at the close of this year,\u201d said NMPF Chairman and CEO Jim Mulhern in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nmpf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/NMPF-Letter-to-Congress-on-Restoration-of-US-Formula-Tariffs_Nov-17-2022.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the letter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As Gabriella Beaumont\u2010\u200bSmith, policy analyst at the Cato Institute, has pointed out, suspending the tariffs was one of the federal government\u2019s more effective \u201cband-aids\u201d at the height of the crisis. \u201cImports overall increased by almost\u00a0<em>4\u2011fold<\/em>\u00a0between January and September 2022,\u201d Beaumont-Smith <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cato.org\/blog\/hush-here-comes-not-so-little-baby-tax\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">writes<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The larger issue at play here is that between trade restrictions and the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s (FDA) largely contested labeling and ingredient regulations, the government has been making it difficult for moms to purchase European baby formula long before the crisis began. <\/p>\n<p>When the country\u2019s largest baby formula plant shut down and pandemic supply chains imploded, the government\u2019s burdensome regulations on moms and babies were exposed, and the FDA quickly scrambled to loosen restrictions to allow more foreign formula into the country. As I <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/05\/12\/the-fda-was-making-it-difficult-for-moms-to-get-baby-formula-long-before-the-supply-chain-imploded\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> earlier this year, many moms prefer European formulas over American brands for a variety of reasons but have often faced obstacles getting their babies\u2019 food, like having orders of formula <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbp.gov\/newsroom\/local-media-release\/philadelphia-cbp-seizes-162k-mislabeled-baby-formula-germany\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">seized<\/a> by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. <\/p>\n<p>As I wrote in May: <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Some perceive European brands to be higher quality than American formulas, although medical experts disagree on whether this is true. The European equivalent of the FDA does not allow any amount of trace pesticides to be present in their milk, so the foundation of the formula is coming from cows producing a higher quality of milk, which appeals to today\u2019s American customers often in search of \u201cclean\u201d ingredients.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>With that context in mind, it makes sense why American dairy farmers would oppose the American mom\u2019s preference for the products of European cows. On the other hand, it doesn\u2019t excuse Big Dairy to lie about the U.S. formula shortage having \u201cabated.\u201d It also speaks to just how far the effects of government regulation can reach, now that the dairy industry realizes how much they benefitted from a few seemingly innocuous tariff and formula labeling restrictions. <\/p>\n<p>The National Milk Producers Federation is of course welcome to lobby on behalf of its own pocketbooks, but it should be shamed every step of the way as long as its efforts are keeping parents up at night wondering if they have enough formula to make it through the month. <\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Madeline Osburn is managing editor at The Federalist. Contact her at madeline@thefederalist.com or <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/madelineorr\">follow her on Twitter<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nearly a year after the U.S. infant formula shortages began, parents are still struggling to find formula on store shelves, or face purchase limits when they do find their preferred<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1775234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[4210,5458,9019,8563,9110,9023,9109,3819,9022,9108,8360],"class_list":["post-1775467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-baby","tag-bongino","tag-dairy","tag-formula","tag-imported","tag-lobbies","tag-mothers","tag-report","tag-shelves","tag-stare","tag-tax"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1775467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1775234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1775467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1775467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1775467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}