OTTAWA – The Americans complained about Canadian Wheat Board powers again last week.
In return, Canada noted continued use by the United States of damaging food export subsidies and American restrictions on imports of sugar-containing products, peanut butter and a variety of other products.
Last week marked the annual exchange of dirty trade laundry lists across the 49th parallel.
On April 1 in Washington, the U.S. government published its national trade estimate, chronicling trade relations and disputed points with major trade partners.
The same day in Ottawa, the trade department released its annual register of United States barriers to trade.
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Ottawa’s list was much larger, ranging from Army Corps of Engineers work on the Mississippi system to the continued American requirement that Canadian wheat exports to U.S. buyers be accompanied by end-use certificates.
Canada vowed to continue watching the Americans “to ensure that U.S. end-use certificates are not applied in a trade-restrictive manner.”
Trade minister Art Eggleton, in a statement accompanying the trade list, said the barriers and points of dispute affect a small portion of the close to $400 billion worth of cross-border trade but they are important.
“Those barriers that remain are of deep concern to Canadian exporters and we will keep working to remove or reduce them,” he said.
The report repeated U.S. complaints about the wheat board.
“As a state trading enterprise, its pricing and sales practices do not fall under the disciplines of export subsidies under the new (world trade) provisions.”
It said the recently released report of the Canada-U.S. joint grains commission recommended both countries eliminate “excessive discretionary pricing practices” and for Canada, it would mean “placing the CWB at risk of profit or loss in the marketplace, or conducting itself in an equivalent manner.”
The U.S. also confirmed it is pursuing its anti-wheat board campaign in the agriculture committee of the World Trade Organization.
It noted the U.S. is challenging Canada’s supply management protective tariffs under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
And it complained that Canadian restrictions on import of bulk horticultural products have been a problem for American potato sellers trying to ship north.
