WASHINGTON, D.C. – The European Union has no desire to launch a new subsidy trade war with the United States, a senior EU official said last week. But David Roberts, deputy director general of the Brussels-based European Commission, the EU’s administrative arm, also said the EU will continue to subsidize wheat exports whenever world prices […] Read more
Stories by Barry Wilson
Americans ponder safety net programs
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States is still a few years away from a nationally available farm safety net program, says a senior American official. And when it finally is pieced together, there likely will continue to be a federal subsidy in the system of more than $1 billion, said Ken Ackerman, acting administrator of […] Read more
U.S. subsidy era winds down with farmer approval
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Alan Karkosh, an aggressive and entrepreneurial young corn and soybean farmer from Hudson, Iowa, turned on the television one night last week during a visit to Washington and saw farmers being portrayed as freeloaders. He was embarrassed. “It hurt,” the 35 year old said the next day. “But you know, they had […] Read more
Critics decry budget’s lack of rural support
OTTAWA – Rural critics of the federal budget last week did not seem to object too much to what they saw. It was what they didn’t see that bothered them. “I was disappointed the finance minister didn’t use the budget to send a message that they recognize their cost recovery policy is a problem that […] Read more
The all-new Paul Martin, champion of the poor?
Midway through his budget speech last week, finance minister Paul Martin changed his clothes. Off went the flashy topcoat of the millionaire friend of the bankers and the investors, lying in a pile on the floor beside words heaped high in praise of social program cuts and making Canada a safe haven for financiers and […] Read more
FCC move to equity investment from loans not coming soon
The government last week floated the idea that Farm Credit Corporation may start investing ownership funds in new farming operations, rather than merely loaning start-up money to beginning farmers. However, an FCC official says it would be impossible under existing legal restraints. To make it possible, the government would have to change the law and […] Read more
Statistics show boom in food trade
Canada’s food trade hit new export and surplus records last year as the trend toward value-added sales continued. Preliminary merchandise trade figures compiled by Statistics Canada and published last week indicated the value of food exports last year hit a record $18.8 billion, a 7.2 percent jump from 1995 levels. The surplus of exports over […] Read more
Farm officials give thumbs up to trade deal with Chile
Farm lobbyists and industry officials last week told MPs they support Canada’s free trade deal with Chile, which is scheduled to take effect in June. “We endorse any governmental initiative that expands international market opportunities for prairie agriculture,” Gordon Pugh of Prairie Pools Inc. told the Common foreign affairs committee last week. “The Canada-Chile FTA […] Read more
OTTAWA NOTEBOOK
Food prices increased an average 2.2 percent during the past year, exactly in line with the national inflation rate. However, during the past dozen years, the cumulative impact of food price increases has been far less than the general inflation rate. Statistics Canada last week reported that since 1986, the Canadian inflation rate calculated through […] Read more
Support for agriculture programs continues decline
The federal government’s bill for supporting agriculture during the next fiscal year will fall by one-third, heading toward its lowest point in close to two decades, according to spending estimates presented to Parliament last week. In the year beginning April 1, 1997, Ottawa expects to spend a net $1.65 billion on Agriculture Canada programs, compared […] Read more
