Western Producer reporter Adrian Ewins recently covered the U.S. wheat industry conference in Altanta, Georgia, and filed these reports.
ATLANTA, Ga. – While the final outcome of the current wheat trade war between the United States and Canada may be in doubt, one thing is certain.
The U.S. wheat industry won’t give up until the Canadian Wheat Board has been dismantled.
“This will not go away, no matter who wins any of these individual decisions, until we achieve fundamental reform of the CWB,” said Charles Hunnicutt, the Washington-based lawyer for the North Dakota Wheat Commission.
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That fundamental reform would include eliminating federal government guarantees of initial payments, ending the board’s status as the single desk exporter of Canadian wheat and allowing U.S. grain companies to buy and sell Canadian wheat. Taken together, those changes would effectively spell the end of the CWB.
Hunnicutt said the demise of the board would benefit not only U.S. wheat growers but also their counterparts north of the border.
“We really feel like we’re fighting for the Canadian farmer,” he said in an interview during the annual U.S. wheat industry conference.
“I know the Canadian farmer doesn’t need anybody to fight for them, but were we to win, it would be for their benefit because the CWB does nothing but lower farmgate prices to Canadian farmers and all farmers.”
Hunnicutt has been the main legal adviser to the NDWC in its battle to block the import of Canadian wheat.
The case resulted in the imposition of tariffs against Canadian hard red spring wheat, while efforts to have similar tariffs on durum wheat failed. Both decisions are under appeal.
During the recent wheat conference, a number of U.S. officials described the tariff case as simply a means to an end, that end being the demise of the CWB.
Neal Fisher said while blocking Canadian wheat at the border has resulted in increased sales and better prices for U.S. growers, the tariffs represent just part of a “broader strategy” that includes the U.S. government’s challenge against the CWB at the World Trade Organization and efforts to “discipline” state trading enterprises in world trade negotiations.
In a speech to U.S. growers attending the conference, Hunnicutt launched an attack against the CWB and Canadian government policies, accusing both of failing to negotiate in good faith and filing “evasive, partial, irrelevant and disingenuous” evidence in the trade disputes.
He also blasted American wheat millers, who opposed the imposition of tariffs, saying they sold out their “dignity and reputation” in return for low priced wheat from Canada and suggesting they were acting on instructions from the CWB.
One of those who heard Hunnicutt’s address was CWB director Larry Hill, who represented the board during the four-day conference.
In an interview, Hill said while it’s frustrating to have to listen to someone spread false information about the board, there’s no point getting worked up about it.
“He’s pushing his legal case, that’s his job, and these guys are paying his bills,” he said. “It’s all politics and I’ve been hearing this for five years.”
The wheat industry groups meeting during the conference – the Wheat Export Trade Education Committee, the National Association of Wheat Growers and U.S. Wheat Associates – passed an identical resolution presented by the North Dakota commission.
It stated the organizations’ support for all efforts to eliminate the “unfair trading practices” of the CWB and the government of Canada, including WTO disciplines against STEs and bilateral trade actions such as the tariffs and duties now in place.
