REGINA – The protectionist attitude of the United States against Canadian wheat is not acceptable, prime minister Jean ChrŽtien said April 6.
Speaking to about 1,000 people at a Saskatchewan Liberal Association fund-raising dinner, ChrŽtien said the American consumer wants Canadian durum wheat because it’s the best.
“They should listen to their consumers,” ChrŽtien said. “The consumer wants to buy your product because it’s a better product. It’s always the best argument we have in trade relations when we can go to a client or a country and say ‘we don’t want to displace your people, we want to give you the best product available in the market. ‘ “
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ChrŽtien said Canadians realize this is a short-term benefit due to the 1993 flooding along the Mississippi River, but the Americans “should not roll us back to an unacceptable level, especially on durum wheat.”
He said he has told U.S. president Bill Clinton that he is unhappy with the situation.
“I think that they have to understand that when you have a free trade agreement you have to buy, not only to sell.”
Progress being made
The next day, ChrŽtien told reporters trade dispute negotiations are progressing. He said the recent GATT agreement will open more markets and increase wheat prices but there are still some irritants.
“We have one problem with exports to the United States of how many tonnes we can sell to them in wheat and of course, if we are really in a free trade agreement, they should expect that. But at the same time we don’t permit them to come in our market with everything as much as they want. It’s a question of tradeoff and Ralph (agriculture minister Goodale) is very much on top of the job.”
ChrŽtien said he didn’t know how close an agreement was. “If they come to my terms we will have an agreement tomorrow.”
