The largest American farm lobby group has decided to pull out of the world’s biggest farm coalition.
The president of Canada’s farm lobby figures it is a sign of the times. With huge subsidy support, the United States figures it can set the rules without all that messy negotiation and discussion with other, sometimes critical, countries.
“The Americans seem to have the attitude that they don’t need the rest of the world,” said Bob Friesen, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
president.
He spoke in an interview after a Quebec City meeting of farm leaders from Europe and North America.
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Although it was not officially announced, it was common knowledge at the meeting that the American Farm Bureau will cancel its membership in the International Federation of Agricultural Producers.
The farm bureau says it is a simple matter of budget, although critics note the IFAP contribution is a minuscule part of its multi-million dollar budget.
They suggest it is a case of American farm leaders not wanting to be subject to criticism from other countries about the distance between their anti-farm subsidy rhetoric and the fact they are accepting some of the largest subsidies from the U.S. government in history.
“The American Farm Bureau has indicated it is pulling out of IFAP and from Europe’s point of view, it is a real kick in the face,” said Friesen.
“The Europeans put a lot of emphasis on contacts through IFAP. It is as if the Americans are saying they don’t need those contacts any more.”
Meanwhile, the more liberal U.S. National Farmers Union came out of the Quebec City meeting arguing that low commodity prices are an international problem requiring international solutions.
The NFU said better market prices cannot be expected for at least two years. It blamed existing trade rules, approved at the World Trade Organization in 1994.
“Trade rules that have opened markets like those of the U.S. to higher imports while limiting the actions individual governments can take to support domestic agriculture are viewed as a major reason for lower prices,” the American NFU said.
It also supported suggestions from groups, including the Canadian NFU, that prices be raised by reducing the amount of grain produced and available to be sent into the market.
“Farmers recognize that there’s only so much market in the world into which to sell agriculture’s productivity,” said NFU vice-president Alan Bergman from Jud, North Dakota.
Management of inventories is an international issue, he said.
