Brazil resumes dumping investigation into powdered-milk imports

The Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade, and Services (Mdic) will resume the antidumping investigation into imports of powdered milk from Argentina and Uruguay.

The announcement was made this Tuesday (2/12) by the vice president and minister, Geraldo Alckmin, during a meeting with representatives of the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA), members of Congress, and other participants.

“Dairy products are essential for health and nutrition; they have social importance, involving many small farmers and family farmers, and they have economic importance. We will create a permanent interministerial group to monitor the work of the entire dairy chain in our country,” Alckmin said during the meeting.

Jônadan Ma, vice president of the CNA’s National Dairy Cattle Commission, welcomed the decision. “Today was a historic and significant day for the CNA, for the dairy production chain, and for Brazil’s dairy farmers,” he said in a video posted on social media.

Ma cautioned, however, that short-term measures are needed to prevent the uncontrolled entry of the product into the country. “In the meantime, we need the government to implement trade defense measures, adopting provisional measures so that producers are protected until the end of the investigation,” he said. The idea is to establish a tariff on imports of powdered milk from Argentina and Uruguay for four months, with the possibility of extending it for another two months.

The investigation is expected to continue. The expectation is that the case will be resolved within 18 months.

The ministry opened the investigation process in December 2024. In March of this year, the CNA requested provisional antidumping measures to protect the sector while the investigation was still underway.

In August, the investigation was suspended after a preliminary resolution questioned the CNA’s authority to file the antidumping petition and suggested that raw milk and powdered milk were similar products. This was because the entity represents milk producers, not dairy processing industries, which are directly affected by imports of powdered milk.

Since the first dumping investigation into powdered milk from the European Union and New Zealand in 1999, the government has treated raw milk and powdered milk as similar products.

The CNA filed an appeal refuting the arguments. Tuesday’s (2/12) decision is the government’s response to the appeal.

Federal congressman and vice president of the Parliamentary Agricultural Front, Domingos Sávio (PL-MG), thanked the government for accepting the appeal. “This appeal will allow the antidumping process to move forward, so that we can face an import flow we believe to be predatory,” said the congressman.

According to the CNA, in 2023, the price of powdered milk on the domestic market in Argentina averaged US$7.75 per kilo, while powdered milk for export was priced at US$3.56 per kilo. In Uruguay, the domestic price of powdered milk was US$7.91 per kilo in 2023, compared with US$3.71 for exported powdered milk.

The entity also claims there is a direct correlation between the dumping investigation and imported volumes. When the request for a provisional tariff was submitted to the government in March of this year, imports fell 15%. After the ministry published the unfavorable preliminary opinion in August, imports rose 28% that month.

Source: Globo Rural

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