An American presenter at Pulse Days 2002 joked that he was glad Canada
had stricter gun control legislation than the United States.
That’s because part of Tim McGreevy’s speech was about the dicey
subject of U.S. subsidies.
The executive director of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council had the
unenviable task of informing the 1,550 farmers attending the event
about the progress he’s made to get pulses included under lucrative
American farm support programs.
The American Farm Bill is up for renewal. The House of Representatives
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and the Senate each have to draft separate versions of the legislation
that will shape U.S. farm policy for the next five to 10 years.
The two versions will become one during a reconciliation process and
that bill will be passed on to president George W. Bush for his
signature.
McGreevy said the House has already agreed on a version that doesn’t
include pulse crops. The Senate is still debating a proposed bill that
includes a market and loan program for pulses.
He is confident the Senate’s version will ultimately include pulses,
and that peas, chickpeas and lentils will be in the final bill that
will be on the president’s desk “with any luck” before April 15.
McGreevy said it’s anybody’s guess how that would affect American
production of those three crops. His personal pie-in-the-sky estimate
is that acreage would soon double or quadruple from 500,000 acres to
one or two million as more farmers add pulses to their rotations.
As things sit now, marketing assistance and loan deficiency payment
programs kick peas, lentils and chickpeas out of rotations because
producers can minimize their risks by producing other crops.
McGreevy said the farm bill is not the only American government policy
constraining the growth of the pulse industry. Trade sanctions against
Cuba, Libya, Iran, Iraq and Sudan have hurt the industry big time. They
were all consumers of U.S. pulses at one time.
“The total cost to U.S. pulse growers of U.S. trade sanctions is
267,000 tonnes. It’s costing over $50 million a year to the pulse
industry because of our own sanctions on these countries,” he said in
an interview after his Jan. 8 presentation.
But recently there have been signs that support for the embargoes may
be weakening. In November, Cuba bought $20 million of wheat, corn, soy
and rice from the U.S. to make up for losses caused by Hurricane
Michelle.
Cuba said it was a one-time deal, but McGreevy sees it as an indication
that the days of trade sanctions against Cuba may be numbered. He said
the country imports more than 200,000 tonnes of pulses a year, mostly
from Canada.
McGreevy said a ground swell of political support for easing trade
sanctions is beginning to build in the U.S.
“There’s a move in Congress, a lot of it led by pulse representatives
and senators, to try to ease these trade sanctions.”
Tariffs are another constraint that the U.S. pulse industry would like
to see addressed in the new round of World Trade Organization
negotiations.
“Since we export the vast majority of our crop, it is in our best
interest to successfully reduce the trade barriers which exist around
the world,” McGreevy said in his speaking notes.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that agricultural trade
tariffs average 62 percent around the world. McGreevy hopes the WTO
talks will reduce that average, but he tempers those hopes with a dose
of realism.
“The U.S. pulse industry supports free and fair trade around the world.
We also recognize that WTO successes are often measured in inches
versus miles.”
