Discussions concerning the paperwork involved with U.S. dairy exports can be about as interesting as watching cheddar age. U.S. dairy suppliers selling to foreign buyers want the required forms filled and processed as quickly, as accurately and with as little hassle as possible and don’t want to think about it. And that is exactly why the latest developments from USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) are so exciting.

Russia is one of the largest dairy importers in the world, purchasing about 440,000 metric tons of milk powder, cheese, butterfat, whey protein and lactose in 2011 worth nearly $2 billion. Yet for more than two years, the United States has been locked out of the market due to Russian export certificate demands.

The October passage of implementing legislation for the Colombia, Panama and South Korea free trade agreements (FTAs) and President Obama’s subsequent signing of the deals are cause to celebrate.

Over the past two decades, Oceania and the United States have eaten into the European Union’s (EU’s) stranglehold on global cheese trade. However, the bloc still typically controls more than one-third of total annual export volume, and in 2010, EU market share rose sharply as volume soared by more than 100,000 tons. The bloc’s dominance leaves one to wonder what might happen after the EU removes its restrictive milk quotas in 2015, allowing farmers to expand output as much as their budgets will allow. Will that milk find its way into the cheese vat, making a formidable competitor even more of a threat?