ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Defenders of Canada are rare at a U.S. wheat industry convention.
Betsy Faga is one.
In fact, hearing the president of the North American Millers’ Association talk about the ongoing wheat trade dispute between the United States and Canada is like listening to a speech by someone from the Canadian Wheat Board.
Faga left no doubt the millers want the latest bid by U.S. wheat growers to have duties imposed on imports of Canadian wheat and durum to fail.
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“We, like the Canadians, are certainly disappointed that this case and petition has been taken forward,” Faga said in an interview during the annual U.S. wheat industry convention.
The case brought forward by the North Dakota Wheat Commission alleges the board is dumping wheat into the U.S. and asks the U.S. department of commerce to impose duties of 26.7 percent on spring wheat and 34.5 percent on durum.
A preliminary decision is expected in March.
Faga said the millers association will formally intervene in the case to oppose the duties.
“We are looking at ways we can provide information and be helpful,” she said. “We may seek further legal assistance. We are taking this very seriously.”
Faga said U.S. wheat industry and government officials are wrong when they say the board dumps wheat and durum into the U.S at prices below the market.
She said the market is “highly competitive” and in many cases the board gets a premium price.
The reason U.S. millers buy Canadian wheat is because they like the product and the service, she said, which U.S. growers can’t provide.
“There isn’t sufficient quantity here of the quality the millers need,” she said, adding that the U.S. durum crop failed to match demand in each of the past 15 years.
A brochure prepared by the Canadian government as part of its effort to head off the U.S. case provides more statistics that seem to back up the millers’ position.
For example, the seven-page booklet, Some Factors in Canada-U.S. Wheat Trade, states that the proportion of the U.S. durum crop grading No. 1 or 2 had been on the decline. In 1990, those two top grades accounted for 78 percent of the crop. In the next 10 years it averaged 53 percent, hitting a low of 36 percent in 1997.
In the last three years, the percentage of the durum crop in Montana and North Dakota falling into the two top grades averaged 44 percent.
The brochure also states that while U.S. consumption of durum has doubled in the last 25 years, U.S. production has not kept pace, forcing millers to import more to meet demand.
U.S. wheat grower groups take issue with the millers’ statistics and say that one reason U.S. durum production has not increased is the competition from Canada.
Faga acknowledged that the millers’ stance has put them at odds with wheat grower groups but adds she doesn’t think it is creating serious long-term damage to the business relationship between farmers and millers.
“I think we recognize we are all representing the interests of the people we work for,” she said. “It’s a business situation and we’re able to maintain a good business relationship.”
