CARMAN, Man. — Manitoba corn growers have voted to continue their fight against cheap American corn imports that they say push down feed prices in Western Canada.
They want to relaunch a trade complaint they brought against imports last summer, this time making sure their case is airtight.
Last winter, during the final stages of a Canadian International Trade Tribunal investigation, American corn faced a steep tariff when moving into Western Canada.
But on March 7, the tribunal ruled the tariff would end.
Under Canadian trade law in this type of case, all or almost all producers must be injured by dumped and subsidized imports for tariffs to stand.
Read Also
Bond market seen as crop price threat
A grain market analyst believes the bond market is about to collapse and that could drive down commodity values.
In past cases, the tribunal has interpreted “all or nearly all” to mean more than 90 percent of producers.
But it found that as much as 30 percent of western Canadian corn is grown by farmers who feed it to their own livestock, and thus wouldn’t be affected by cheap imports.
Last week, the Manitoba Corn Growers Association met to discuss the ruling.
President Michael Coates said 109 farmers registered to vote at the meeting, and 103 of them voted to continue to work to find a way to make their trade complaint stick.
Coates said an appeal of the CITT decision would be weak.
It would be heard in federal court, and would take 12 to 18 months to be heard.
If the corn growers lost the appeal, they could be found responsible for court costs, he said.
Instead, they have instructed their trade lawyers to examine the case to see whether they can launch a new complaint that is “iron clad.”
The growers also asked Ontario corn producers whether they would join the trade action.
A national case would be a “slam-dunk,” Coates said, since the growers wouldn’t have to prove that all or almost all farmers have been hurt by the cheap corn.
But Ontario producers are loath to ask for a tariff that would raise corn prices because of developments in the province’s ethanol industry.
Launching a trade action could put those goals in jeopardy, he said, adding Ontario producers are net exporters of corn in some years.
