U.S. trade law is subverting free trade, the Canadian Wheat Board’s chief executive officer recently told an audience of influential agricultural leaders from around the world.
Adrian Measner told the World Agricultural Forum’s annual congress in St. Louis, Missouri, last week that free trade can’t work as long as the United States uses its domestic trade laws to harass trading partners.
The combination of strong protectionist sentiment in American agriculture and that country’s willingness to erect trade barriers undermines the effectiveness of the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico, he said after returning from the May 18-20 meeting.
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“Their ability to countervail and use anti-dumping measures really flows against what is trying to be accomplished by free trade agreements,” he said.
“If you could remove that ability for the Americans to undertake those measures within the NAFTA, it would be much more effective.”
In recent months, the U.S. commerce department has imposed temporary countervailing and anti-dumping duties on imports of Canadian durum and hard red spring wheat.
The duties were based on allegations that the Canadian government subsidized exports of those products to the U.S. in 2001-02 and that the CWB sold them to U.S. buyers that year for less than it sold them to Canadian buyers.
Measner said it should be a priority in the next round of world trade talks to deal with the continuing use of U.S. domestic trade law to block legitimate trade.
“It could be addressed under NAFTA, but a lot of times these laws are structured under World Trade Organization rules, so the best long-term solution is probably through the WTO.”
One step that could be taken would be to require petitioners who request duties, such as the North Dakota Wheat Commission, to pay legal costs if the case is lost.
Measner was part of a round table discussion at the forum looking at how free trade agreements have affected agriculture. Also participating were representatives from the U.S. wheat industry, an agricultural marketing co-operative, the U.S. government, Oxfam and Mexican agricultural organizations.
Daren Coppock, chief executive officer of the U.S. National Association of Wheat Growers, who also participated in the round table discussion, took issue with Measner’s criticisms of U.S. trade law.
“Essentially what he’s saying is, ‘let us do whatever we want with no penalty,’ ” Coppock said. “We obviously can’t agree to something like that.”
In an interview from NAWG’s Washington office, he said it would be preferable for all countries to operate under the same rules through multilateral trade agreements. But since that’s not the case, especially with state trading enterprises such as the CWB, the U.S. would have much to lose by giving up its ability to protect itself against unfair trade, he said.
The forum was founded in 1997 as a non-profit organization representing industry, finance, academia, government, public policy and special interest advocacy groups to discuss issues involving food, water, fibre and fuel.
Its members include leading agriculture-related corporations such as Bunge, Cargill, Dow AgroSciences, Dupont, Monsanto, Novartis and Anheuser-Busch.
