to the consumption and therefore the actual development of the cheese industry in this country, rather than injuring it? Mr. FROMER. I have tried to make that point with my statement, that in spite of imports, and in fact because of imports we have been increasing our own producion of cheese. In conclusion I would like to submit these newspaper items, gentlemen. This appeared as an editorial in the Washington Post on July 25. This is from the Herald Tribune of September 9. This is from the Herald Tribune of September 11. This is from the World-Telegram and Sun, September 10. The New York Times, August 27. This is the article that Senator Ives had reference to that appeared. in the Cheese Reporter on August 21. This is from Monroe, Wis., and bears out what Senator Fulbright just indicated, that imported cheese has been stimulating the production of cheese in this country. And as living proof of it, here is an American cheese plant starting to produce an Italian type of cheese, the taste for which has undoubtedly been stimulated by Italian imports. Senator IVES. How much cheaper is imported cheese than the domestic cheese? Mr. FROMER. The imported cheese is more expensive than the domestic cheese. Senator IVES. When you sell it? Mr. FROMER. When you sell it and when you import it. The only cheese-that may be an exception to that-is the blue cheese. With reference to that, as I have indicated to you, there is a Tariff Commission hearing at the present time. I would like to tell you about blue cheese. They wanted to raise their price to be higher than ours. Here is what happened: English buyers had purchased a supply of Danish blue cheese over a certain period of time. There were certain commitments tying up certain factories. They bought it at a lower price than the American market was buying the same cheese and they were threatening to sell the cheese to the United States and undercut the Danish sellers of the cheese in this country. That was a chaotic condition and caused the price of Danish cheese to fall to a point where it was in some cases as low and in some cases lower than the domestic product. That situation is now being corrected. I know for a fact that one of the largest distributors of Danish blue cheese increased their price recently from 45 cents a pound to 49 cents a pound. Now, as I said to you before, that is only one variety of cheese in a situation that is special in its nature. The general level of prices of imported cheese is higher. For example, Swiss cheese manufactured in this country sells for 45 to 49 cents a pound at wholesale. Swiss cheese imported from Switzerland, 81 to 83 cents a pound at wholesale. Gorgonzola, which is also a blue-mold cheese, sells for 53 to 55 cents domestically made at wholesale; the Italian product at 56 and 59 cents. Romano cheese, domestically made, sells for 66 to 68 cents. The Italian Pecorino Romano cheese sells at 88 to 92 cents a pound. The same is true of Provoloni cheese made here and imported from abroad. And Cheddar cheese. Domestic Cheddar was 41 to 42 cents in this morning's New York Journal of Commerce and imported from Canada is 50 to 54 cents. These are wholesale selling prices in this country at the same level. Mr. FROMER. Oh, yes; there is a tariff. Mr. FROMER. The tariff varies from 15 percent to 25 percent ad valorem. Senator FULBRIGHT. That applies regardless of this bill or any other? Mr. FROMER. It applies regardless of this bill or any other, that is right, and it is subject to increase by reason of the escape clause in the tariff act. Senator FULBRIGHT. Thank you very much, Mr. Fromer. Senator IVES. I take it your idea, in order to meet this situation, for American cheese manufacturers to improve their quality of cheese which would be demanded by Americans, instead of this other type of cheese which is being imported, and meet the problem by that process and not by artificial means; is that it? Mr. FROMER. The amount of imports is so insignificantly small compared to domestic production. There is a certain portion of consumers who will always demand and want the particular varieties from their home country. I do not think we should raise trade barriers to shut off that source of supply for those people. It is not interfering with domestic production. If anything, it is stimulating it because they start out by buying their foreign variety and end up by buying the American variety of the same cheese. Senator FULBRIGHT. As a matter of fact, Mr. Fromer, I have been getting from a friend of mine some Swiss cheese from Idaho, that I cannot tell the difference between it and the regular Swiss. Mr. FROMER. I have been in this business all my life. I was raised in the cheese business. I remember when we made Swiss cheese in Wisconsin which had a rag on it. Before you can cut the cheese into sliceable portions you had to rip the rag off. That was the cheese rag in which they set the cheese. The cheese had been coming from Switzerland without that rag. They had perfected a method of making it in a better way. It did not take us long to catch on. It did not take us long to bring over the Swiss manufacturers and produce the cheese here and continually improve our own cheese to the point where we have a very fine Swiss cheese today. That is the stimulation that they have developed. They have developed a system of using clarifiers in Switzerland in making Swiss cheese. We are attendant to many of their improvements. We should not hamper those improvements by cutting off the cheese altogether. It is a stimulation to our business and to our progress in the business. Senator IVES. Thank you. (The statement and miscellaneous papers offered by Mr. Fromer follow:) STATISTICAL ANALYSIS-IMPORTS OF CHEESE INTO THE UNITED STATES DURING Summary of imports of cheese by types from all foreign countries Source: Bureau of the Census, U. S. Department of Commerce-Report F. T. 110. |