A Manitoba farmer has a beef about the way money will be refunded from the dumping duty applied to Canadian beef exporters this year.
Some of that money will flow back to order buyers and cattle exporters who shipped cattle into the United States while the duty was in effect, said Marvin Mohr, a producer from Roblin, Man.
Those buyers will land themselves a windfall because they subtracted the duty from the prices they were offering beef producers. The discount has become the farmer’s loss.
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“They’ll get the money back and it wasn’t their money to begin,” Mohr said.
The U.S. duty was imposed last July following allegations that Canadian cattle were being dumped into the American market at less than the cost of production.
Last month, the U.S. international trade commission ruled in Canada’s favor and the duty was lifted.
Mohr thinks changes are needed in the event that Canadian cattle get slapped with another dumping duty in the
future.
He said order buyers and exporters should not claim a refund when they have already discounted cattle prices to allow for the duty. He said the money should go into a fund to fight future trade actions against Canadian cattle and beef exports.
“It’s just another windfall for these guys at the expense of farmers.”
The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association said refunds from the duty will be decided according to who the importer of record was for each shipment. The importer of record was the person who worked with a U.S. Customs broker to get the cattle across the line.
“It’s not specifically an issue of ownership,” said Dennis Laycraft, the association’s executive vice-president.
“It’s a question of who had the task of clearing them at the border.”
The CCA advised producers to position themselves as the importers of record. That would allow producers to collect refunds on the duties.
