2023-18900. Adjustment of Appendices Under the Dairy Tariff-Rate Quota Import Licensing Regulation

AGENCY:

Foreign Agricultural Service, USDA.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

This notice announces the transfer of amounts for certain dairy articles from the historical license category (Appendix 1) to the lottery (nonhistorical) license category (Appendix 2) pursuant to the Dairy Tariff-Rate Quota Import Licensing regulations for the 2023 quota year.

DATES:

August 31, 2023.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Elizabeth Riley, (202) 720–6868, [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The Foreign Agricultural Service, under a delegation of authority from the Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, administers the Dairy Tariff-Rate Import Quota Licensing Regulation codified at 7 CFR 6.20–6.36 that provides for the issuance of licenses to import certain dairy articles under tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) as set forth in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) of the United States. These dairy articles may only be entered into the United States at the low-tier tariff by or for the account of a person or firm to whom such licenses have been issued and only in accordance with the terms and conditions of the regulation.

Licenses are issued on a calendar year basis, and each license authorizes the license holder to import a specified quantity and type of dairy article from a specified country of origin. The Imports Program, Foreign Agricultural Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, issues these licenses and, in conjunction with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, monitors their use.

The regulation at 7 CFR 6.34(a) states that whenever a historical license (Appendix 1) is permanently surrendered, revoked by the Licensing Authority, or not issued to an applicant pursuant to the provisions of § 6.23, then the amount of such license will be transferred to Appendix 2. Section 6.34(b) provides that the cumulative annual transfers will be published by notice in the Federal Register . Accordingly, this document sets forth the revised Appendices in the table below. Although there are no changes to the quantities for designated licenses (Appendix 3 and Appendix 4), those numbers are also included in the table below for completeness.

Aileen Mannix,

Acting Licensing Authority, Foreign Agricultural Service.

Articles Subject to Dairy Import Licenses

[Kilograms] ¹

	Historical licenses (appendix 1) 2	Lottery licenses (appendix 2) 3	Sum of appendix 1 & 2 4	Designated licenses (Tokyo round, appendix 3) 4	Designated licenses (Uruguay round, appendix 4) 4	Total 4
NON-CHEESE ARTICLES, Notes 6, 7, 8, 12, 14 (Appendix 1 reduction):
Butter (Note 6, Commodity Code G)	4,200,466	2,776,534	6,977,000			6,977,000
EU–27	53,445	28,654	82,099
New Zealand	76,503	74,090	150,593
United Kingdom	7,144	6,918	14,062
Other Countries	31,863	42,072	73,935
Any Country	4,031,511	2,624,800	6,656,311
Dried Skim Milk (Note 7, Commodity Code K)	0	5,261,000	5,261,000			5,261,000
Australia	0	600,076	600,076
Canada	0	219,565	219,565
Any Country	0	4,441,359	4,441,359
Dried Whole Milk (Note 8, Commodity Code H)	0	3,321,300	3,321,300			3,321,300
New Zealand	0	3,175	3,175
Any Country	0	3,318,125	3,318,125
Dried Buttermilk/Whey (Note 12, Commodity Code M)	0	224,981	224,981			224,981
Canada	0	161,161	161,161
New Zealand	0	63,820	63,820
Butter Substitutes Containing Over 45 Percent of Butterfat and/or Butter Oil (Note 14, Commodity Code SU)	0	6,080,500	6,080,500			6,080,500
Any Country	0	6,080,500	6,080,500
Total: Non-Cheese Articles	4,200,466	17,664,315	21,864,781			21,864,781
Cheese Articles (Notes 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25):
Cheese and Substitutes for Cheese (Note 16, Commodity Code OT) (−346,844 kg)	16,536,559	14,933,172	31,469,731	9,661,128	7,496,000	48,626,859
Argentina	0	7,690	7,690	92,310		100,000
Australia	13,122	528,048	541,170	758,830	1,750,000	3,050,000
Canada	882,039	258,961	1,141,000			1,141,000
Costa Rica	0	0	0		1,550,000	1,550,000
EU–27 (not including Portugal) (−136,766 kg)	12,566,115	8,709,452	21,275,567	835,707	3,168,576	25,279,850
Portugal	65,838	63,471	129,309	223,691		353,000
Israel	79,696	0	79,696	593,304		673,000
Iceland	29,054	0	294,000	29,000		323,000
New Zealand	1,314,690	3,500,782	4,815,472	6,506,528		11,322,000
Norway	122,860	27,140	150,000			150,000
Switzerland	505,880	165,532	671,412	548,588	500,000	1,720,000
Uruguay	0	0	0		250,000	250,000
United Kingdom (−210,078 kg)	875,138	987,642	1,862,780	73,170	277,424	2,213,374
Other Countries	82,127	119,508	201,635			201,635
Any Country	0	300,000	300,000			300,000
Blue-Mold Cheese (Note 17, Commodity Code B) (−3,324 kg)	1,919,656	561,345	2,481,001		430,000	2,911,001
Argentina	2,000	0	2,000			2,000
EU–27 (−2,941 kg)	1,905,316	552,989	2,458,305		347,078	2,805,383
Chile	0	0	0		80,000	80,000
United Kingdom (−383 kg)	12,340	8,355	20,695		2,922	23,617
Other Countries	0	1	1			1
Cheddar Cheese (Note 18, Commodity Code C) (−10,749 kg)	2,245,742	2,038,114	4,283,856	519,033	7,620,000	12,422,889
Australia (−4,676 kg)	867,866	116,633	984,499	215,501	1,250,000	2,450,000
Chile	0	0	0	0	220,000	220,000
EU–27 (−1,513 kg)	12,106	71,431	83,537	0	333,515	417,052
New Zealand (−4,560 kg)	1,260,510	1,535,958	2,796,468	303,532	5,100,000	8,200,000
United Kingdom	26,006	153,457	179,463	0	716,485	895,948
Other Countries	79,254	60,635	139,889			139,889
Any Country	0	100,000	100,000			100,000
American-Type Cheese (Note 19, Commodity Code A) (−12,766 kg)	1,124,658	2,040,895	3,165,553	357,003	0	3,522,556
Australia (−3,696 kg)	744,943	136,055	880,998	119,002		1,000,000
EU–27	131,539	222,461	354,000			354,000
New Zealand (−9,070 kg)	145,120	1,616,879	1,761,999	238,001		2,000,000
Other Countries	103,056	65,500	168,556			168,556
Edam and Gouda Cheese (Note 20, Commodity Code D) (−8,629 kg)	4,230,506	1,375,896	5,606,402	0	1,210,000	6,816,402
Argentina	105,418	19,582	125,000		110,000	235,000
EU–27 (−8,629 kg)	4,009,280	1,279,720	5,289,000		1,100,000	6,389,000
Norway	111,046	55,954	167,000			167,000
Other Countries	4,762	20,640	25,402			25,402
Italian-Type Cheeses (Note 21, Commodity Code D) (−2,288 kg)	5,824,262	1,696,285	7,520,547	795,517	5,165,000	13,481,064
Argentina	3,507,548	617,935	4,125,483	367,517	1,890,000	6,383,000
EU–27 (−2,288 kg)	2,316,714	1,065,286	3,382,000		2,025,000	5,407,000
Romania	0	0	0		500,000	500,000
Uruguay	0	0	0	428,000	750,000	1,178,000
Other Countries	0	13,064	13,064			13,064
Swiss or Emmenthaler Cheese (Note 22, Commodity Code GR) (−4,546 kg)	3,378,368	3,272,946	6,651,314	823,519	380,000	7,854,833
EU–27 (−4,546 kg)	2,155,902	2,996,092	5,151,994	393,006	380,000	5,925,000
Switzerland	1,211,306	208,181	1,419,487	430,513		1,850,000
Other Countries	11,160	68,673	79,833			79,833
Lowfat Cheese (Note 23, Commodity Code LF)	1,173,766	3,251,142	4,424,908	1,050,000	0	5,474,908
EU–27	1,173,766	3,251,141	4,424,907			4,424,907
Israel	0	0	0	50,000		50,000
New Zealand	0	0	0	1,000,000		1,000,000
Other Countries	0	1	1			1
Swiss or Emmenthaler Cheese With Eye Formation (Note 25, Commodity Code SW) (−9,092 kg)	12,855,263	9,442,068	22,297,331	9,557,945	2,620,000	34,475,276
Argentina	0	9,115	9,115	70,885		80,000
Australia	209,698	0	209,698	290,302		500,000
Canada	0	0	0	70,000		70,000
EU–27 (−9,092 kg)	9,635,502	6,841,326	16,476,828	4,003,172	2,420,000	22,900,000
Iceland	0	149,999	149,999	150,001		300,000
Israel	0	27,000	27,000			27,000
Norway	2,207,873	1,447,437	3,655,310	3,227,690		6,883,000
Switzerland	759,369	924,736	1,684,105	1,745,895	200,000	3,630,000
Other Countries	42,821	42,455	85,276			85,276
Total: Cheese Articles (−398,238 kg)	49,288,780	38,611,863	87,900,643	22,764,145	24,921,000	135,585,788
Total: Cheese & Non-Cheese	53,489,246	56,276,178	109,765,424	22,764,145	24,921,000	157,450,569
1  Source of the total TRQs is the U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule, Chapter 4, in the corresponding Additional U.S. Notes.
2  Reduced from 2022 by a total of -398,238 kg.
3  Increased from 2022 by a total of 398,238 kg.
4  No change.