ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – There were conflicting signals recently from American farm leaders about how the collapse of World Trade Organization negotiations will affect U.S. farm policy.
Gerald Tumbleson of Minnesota, president of the National Corn Growers’ Association, predicted in a July 27 interview that pressures to cut farm program spending will continue to be a key factor as United States lawmakers begin to write a new farm bill.
He had just given an enthusiastic speech about the potential for ethanol and biofuel development to the semi-annual meeting of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.
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Tumbleson said he does not believe that collapse of WTO talks aimed at creating new disciplines on subsidies and trade barriers will give the U.S. Congress licence to increase farm spending.
“It’s true that the WTO talks and proposals to cut spending won’t be a factor in writing the next farm bill and it is an election year so there are political spending pressures in Congress,” he said. “But I think the mood still is to reduce spending, certainly from the administration. Don’t forget that we’re borrowing a lot of the money we are spending.”
Still, Tumbleson said that like all countries, the U.S. is not going to quit subsidizing its farmers.
“The safety net in the U.S. is the farm bill, it’s a good one and we love it,” he told CFA board members.
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., on the same day, another American farm leader called for an extension of the farm bill and its spending in light of the collapse of WTO talks.
“With the suspension of the Doha Round of WTO trade talks on agriculture, the time has come for American agriculture to clearly focus on the need to extend our farm program for at least one year,” American Farm Bureau president Bob Stallman said.
“By extending the current farm program, with minor changes to take into account recent trade rulings, we will move forward with the kind of policy that helps ensure U.S. farmers have the support they need to survive in today’s contentious global trading environment.”
The farm bureau is the largest U.S. farm lobby with close ties to the governing Republicans.
Stallman also called on the Republican-led Congress to extend the act that gives the administration the power to negotiate trade deals that Congress can approve or defeat, but not change. The so-called fast-track trade bill expires in a year and its looming expiry had been one of the pressures on WTO negotiators to get a deal in 2006.
