Federal cabinet ministers last week dismissed as “frustrating” and “ridiculous” the latest assault by American politicians against the Canadian Wheat Board.
In Washington, D.C., representatives of the North Dakota Wheat Commission accused the CWB of operating a secret and illegal monopoly, driving down prices by eight percent and costing American producers up to $100 million US annually.
They demanded interim import duties of $50 per tonne against Canadian wheat flowing south.
This would be “leverage” in the American attempt to force Canada to end the CWB export monopoly.
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“This is the frustration we find in American trade rhetoric,” said trade minister Pierre Pettigrew Oct. 24 during a Parliament Hill meeting of the House of Commons foreign affairs and trade committee.
“They are very protectionist. But if they try to do something, we will defend our Canadian agriculture and we will win again.”
In a later interview, agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief added his dismissive comments on the latest American charges.
He called Americans “one-way traders” who like to ship products north but don’t like to see Canadian products coming south.
Vanclief predicted there will be no action in Washington on the latest Great Plains charges against the CWB until the International Trade Commission finishes its latest, and ninth, investigation of the CWB. The previous eight investigations exonerated the board’s trading record.
“I have seen nothing to indicate to date that the wheat board is doing anything other than trading fairly,” said Vanclief. “They are very narrow minded and protectionist and one-way traders when they talk that way. They are very na•ve to the importance of two-way trade.”
The issue was raised at the foreign affairs committee by Winnipeg MP John Harvard, chair of the Liberal western and northern caucus and a fierce wheat board partisan.
He said the latest North Dakota charges are outrageous.
“I think it’s rubbish,” said Harvard. “I think it is ridiculous.”
Pettigrew said the Americans seem to ignore the real nature of market power in the wheat trade.
“It is very frustrating for us,” he said. “The wheat board is smaller than Cargill.”
However, foreign affairs committee chair Bill Graham noted that American trade law encourages such unfair trading charges.
If the complainant wins and duties are imposed, the proceeds go to the party claiming injury.
“They get to share in the spoils,” he said. “This encourages them. It doesn’t look like it is going to stop.”
Pettigrew, a former Montreal-based trade consultant, agreed.
“It is very good for the lawyers,” he said. “If I had to redo my career, I would be an American trade lawyer.”
