WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Charles Schumer introduced legislation Wednesday aimed at closing the “gaping loophole in federal trade law” which he said has allowed foreign milk protein concentrates to flood the US market and undercut the domestic dairy industry while driving down the farm price for milk and costing New York’s dairy farmers millions of dollars a year.

“This is one of the worst times for our dairy farmers,” Schumer said, as he spoke of the challenges New Yorks 5,800 farm families are facing while milk prices are lower than the cost of production.

With the Milk Import Tariff Equity Act, the senator said he seeks to correct what he called a “major mistake” when the U.S. last set its tariff and quota schedule during the seven year negotiation of the World Trade Organization’s Uraguay Round Agreement on Agriculture. MPCs, which were not widely used in food production at the time, were not included in the list of dairy and dairy-derived products covered by the agreement, which took effect in 1995.

Foreign producers are attempting to further exploit this loophole and “skirt existing tariffs” by adding trace amounts of MPCs to other dairy products, Schumer said.