This time on The Milk Check, we welcome a leading mind in international trade policy and personal friend of the podcast.

Jaime Castaneda is senior vice president of policy strategy and international trade for the National Milk Producers Federation, where he oversees the development and implementation of domestic policy. He also leads international trade negotiations for the U.S. dairy industry as senior vice president of trade policy for the U.S. Dairy Export Council.

Jaime joins the Teds in a discussion of how trade policy developed over Jaime's 22 years in the industry, from dairy farmers' early reluctance to accept imports to the industry's ongoing efforts to improve and enforce trade agreements.

Among other topics, they also debate whether the Federal Order System and tariff rates are holding back U.S. dairy in international markets, or if the problem is our slow response to short-term international economics and low customer loyalty outside of domestic markets.

T3: Hello, everybody. Welcome to the "Milk Check," episode 35. It is March 16, and our guest today is Jaime Castenada from the U.S. Dairy Export Council. But I believe you wear multiple hats. So, I'll let you describe what roles you fill with USDEC and National Milk.

Jaime: Yeah. Thanks. Good afternoon to everyone. I am actually the senior vice president for the National Milk Producers Federation. Under that capacity, I oversee the development and implementation of domestic policy, an area of different issues, including from the initiative of Foundation for the Future, that was the preload to the dairy margin coverage to Farm Bills to just name it. At the same time, I served in my capacity, as senior vice president for policy and trade, I also lead our partnership with the U.S. Dairy Export Council and serve now, for almost, actually, next month is going to be 22 years that I am with the industry and that I have been serving as our partner with the U.S. Dairy Export Council.

T3: Well, wow, we're lucky to have you. And T.C. Jacolby & Company is one of the founding members of the U.S. Dairy Export Council and we've been involved with the U.S. Dairy Export Council from the very beginning. Have you been involved with the U.S. Dairy Export Council the whole time?

Jaime: Yes, yes. In fact on Suber, really, I discuss joining the U.S. Dairy Export Council. The way that we work is that we operate everything that relates to policy under National Milk, specifically related to trade, just to make sure that, if you remember, the U.S. Dairy Export Council, it's a cooperator for USDA, which receives monies from MAP, the checkoff funds as well as MAP money. So, in order to make sure that advocacy is properly and it's done using membership dues, then we created this ability. And I do remember sitting... And now at U.S. Dairy Export Council is a large organization, 150 members more or less. And I do remember when sitting with Ted Sr. in a small table, Lei Jensen and a few other folks that were the original founders of the U.S. Dairy Export Council.

Ted: Those were the days. I remember those days very vividly. It goes back, what, to the '90s?

Jaime: Yeah, 1999. 1999, and that's where we began developing the trade policy. If you remember, prior to 1999, even dairy farmers, and this is a lot of credit to folks like yourself and Tom Camaro that look at the vision and the future. And if you remember, dairy farmers were not very keen on trade. In fact, if you talked to them on trade, in the 1990s, it was all about, "We hate imports." And it was the development through this small group of folks that were the visionaries that we developed this trade policy and this perspective,