The latest American assault on the Canadian Wheat Board has ended in failure but U.S. government officials vowed to continue their campaign to dismantle Canada’s grain marketing agency.
A World Trade Organization panel last week threw out a U.S. complaint that the CWB breaks international trade law and engages in unfair trading practices
The three-member panel ruled that the board operates in a commercial manner and follows the rules laid out by the WTO.
The decision was hailed as vindication for the board by CWB officials, federal government ministers and the board’s farmer supporters.
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“This is a major victory for farmers,” said CWB president and chief executive officer Adrian Measner.
“With no evidence, the U.S. took its case to the supreme court of international trade and their bluff was called.”
For years, the board has had to listen to the U.S. make unfounded charges of unfair trading against the CWB without offering evidence, he said, so having the highest arbiter of international trade law dismiss the U.S. government’s case is extremely satisfying.
National Farmers Union president Stewart Wells said the ruling affirms that Canadian farmers have the right to decide what kind of marketing system they want without having to appease the U.S. government.
“The U.S. must cease its relentless and costly attacks against Canadian farmers,” he said.
However, U.S. government and grain industry officials made it clear they have no intention of declaring a ceasefire in their war on the wheat board.
Despite the WTO ruling, they continued to insist the CWB is an unfair trader and said they would concentrate their efforts on changing world trade rules.
“The U.S. will continue, through the WTO negotiations, to aggressively pursue reform of the WTO disciplines in order to create an effective regime to address the unfair monopolistic practices of state trading enterprises like the CWB,” said a statement from U.S. trade representative Robert Zoellick.
And while expressing disappointment with the WTO decision, they claimed a victory of their own.
While exonerating the CWB of any wrongdoing, the panel did find in favour of U.S. complaints that several Canadian regulations violate WTO rules by discriminating against foreign grain.
The regulations in question deal with restrictions on the importation and handling of foreign grain and the fact that foreign grain is not included under the railway revenue cap.
U.S. officials characterized those favorable findings as important wins that would erode the CWB’s position, but Canadian officials said they were insignificant issues that can probably be resolved by amending the language of the regulations.
CWB director Larry Hill, chair of the board’s international trade committee, said he hopes that last week’s ruling that the board is a fair, commercial trader will have an impact on the U.S. campaign to go after the CWB in WTO agricultural negotiations.
“This surely must hurt some of their credibility around this issue,” he said.
