Canadian trade minister Pierre Pettigrew is denouncing United States
president George Bush as a shortsighted friend of protectionism, in
part because he signed into law last week the new U.S. farm bill.
“How can we now convince the European Union to eliminate agricultural
subsidies when the Americans act the way they do these days?” Pettigrew
said May 16 during an interview from Paris broadcast on CBC television.
“The United States is now nearing a point where they are losing
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credibility and their credibility is very necessary for the success of
the Doha round of the (World Trade Organization).”
Pettigrew was in Paris for meetings with trade ministers from both the
WTO and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
He said recent American domestic decisions, including the subsidy-rich
farm bill and trade barriers against imports of steel and Canadian
softwood lumber, were the focus of some heated attacks.
“People really gave them a lot of very, very nasty comments,” he said.
“We see that every time the Bush administration has a choice to make,
whether it is on steel, farm bill, softwood lumber, they always side
with the most protectionist elements in their society.”
Pettigrew’s comments came after Canada signed onto a statement by the
free trade-promoting Cairns Group condemning the U.S. farm bill.
“The bill contains a massive 80 percent increase in farm subsidies over
base support levels in the 1996 (farm bill),” said the Cairns statement
issued in Geneva. “It is damaging to the international economy and
could undermine efforts to achieve global reform of this heavily
subsidized and distorted sector.”
Canada is a charter member of the Cairns Group, formed in 1986 to fight
against agricultural export subsidies and protectionism.
Negative Canadian farm reaction against the farm bill was heard last
week.
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association said farm bill subsidies
will lead to overproduction and make a bad farm economy worse.
“It is astounding that a country that professes to be a leader in trade
reform and waves the flag of market economics would implement a farm
bill like this,” said WCWGA past-president Ted Menzies in a statement
issued from Regina offices. “We are extremely disappointed that
president Bush signed this bill against the better judgment of his own
administration for reasons of political expediency.”
Pettigrew said he is baffled by Bush, long considered a free trader.
“Quite frankly, taking on the protectionist forces in his own country
would send the right messages to the European Union, to the developing
world, to Cairns Group partners,” said the trade minister.
