From the French Culinary Institute's blog:
In case you haven’t heard by now, there’s a feud that has been brewing
for a decade regarding the banned importation of hormone-treated beef
into the European Union and Roquefort, the much loved French-made blue
cheese that has become the subject of a 300% US tariff set to go into
effect on April 23. This sharp increase from the already hefty 100%
tariff imposed by the Clinton administration in 1999 will lead to
eye-popping prices on some brands of Roquefort that could rise to over
$100 a pound and will likely result in a sharp decline in both
importation and consumption of the sheep’s milk cheese.
The loss
of revenue to the US beef market because of the EU ban totaled an
estimated $116.8 million annually, and to make up for the loss the US
trade office revised the list of taxed EU goods. Yet strangely, the
only thing that was altered was the import tax on Roquefort, which
according to the trade office was singled out amongst a host of other
imported foods because of its consistently high sales despite the 1999
increase.
The April 23 deadline is actually an extension of the
original date of March 23, which was set just days before Bush left
office in January. According to the Obama administration, this added
30-day grace period will allow one last chance to open up talks and to
hopefully resolve this long-stewing situation before the tripled tariff
is officially imposed.
I asked several people, including a few
French chefs around The FCI campus, to give their thoughts on the
situation, and here’s what they had to say:
Henry Pillsbury, an
American expatriate living in Paris for over forty years, thinks there
is more to it than just retaliation by the US and suspects that,
“America has moral / hygiene problems with the non-pasteurization of
French cheeses (Roquefort is notably not pasteurized). So, the 300%
levy on Roquefort probably strikes some of our lawmakers as a moral,
healthy punch in the right snoot.”
This morning I made my way
through hectic FCI kitchens filled with students busily preparing for
the lunch rush to get brief impressions from a trio of chefs at FCI:
Chef
Henri Viain: “I have a feeling that the EU will just end up taxing or
banning something else in retaliation once it passes.”
Chef
Pascal Béric: “I think the entire thing is ridiculous, particularly
with the economic climate being in such a depressed state.”
Chef
Hervé Malivert: “Perhaps the EU should consider banning only
hormone-treated beef and accept beef that is organically produced in
order to reach a compromise. My thought on the increased import tax is
that the US should ban the cheese altogether instead of collecting a
profit from the Roquefort that comes into the country.”
I had an
exchange this morning on the Roquefort matter with Liz Thorpe, Vice
President of Murray’s Cheese, New York’s oldest and most famous cheese
shop, who said, "In general we think the imposition of a 300% tariff on
some of Europe's most traditional foods is a grave setback for anyone
in the US who wants to eat real food. That our government is suggesting
this because the EU rejects our beef cattle, with their antibiotics and
hormones, makes it that much worse. For us at Murray's Cheese, as an
importer, retailer and wholesaler, such a tax necessitates a
prohibitively expensive retail price (around $60/pound) if we want to
preserve realistic margins. So, with great regret, we will cease
importing Roquefort on April 23 should the tariff be official. In the
meantime, we've gotten a big order for the week of April 14 and hope it
will tide our customers over for a few weeks, at the very least!" Ms.
Thorpe has a candid and informative take on the issue that you can read
on Murray’s Blog.
Now it’s your turn: What are your thoughts on the unfolding Roquefort drama?
