Canadian agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief’s planned trip to
Washington, D.C., in March to lobby against rich subsidies in a new
U.S. farm bill has become much more complicated.
Last week, comments by Vanclief aide Donald Boulanger caused a furor in
Washington. Boulanger’s statements in The Western Producer said that
United States agriculture secretary Ann Veneman had invited Vanclief to
lobby members of Congress against high farm subsidies.
North Dakota Democratic senator Kent Conrad, chair of the Senate
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finance committee, denounced Veneman on the floor of the Senate and
wrote to president George W. Bush to protest any attempt to “invite the
Canadian government to lobby against the U.S. farm bill.”
He wondered if the Republican agriculture secretary had “forgotten
whose side she is on. She’s in the cabinet of the president of the
United States, not in the cabinet of the government of Canada.”
Veneman denied the report.
Vanclief’s office scrambled to implement damage control by apologizing
to Veneman, issuing a statement renouncing the aide’s comments and
vowing that it was business as usual with the Americans.
On Feb. 18, Vanclief said the controversy was behind him and it would
not affect his planned trip to the American capitol.
“Not at all,” he said in a Parliament Hill interview. “We had talks
with secretary Veneman since then. She understands that the comments
that were made by my staff were inaccurate, were not the proper
interpretation of the conversation I had with her.”
He said they talked three times last week in the midst of the
Washington political firestorm. “After she received my statement, she
was very satisfied with it. She’s OK. No problem.”
The statement issued in Ottawa by Vanclief’s office Feb. 15 said he had
clarified the statement with the U.S. cabinet minister.
“I look forward to meeting members of Congress as part of our ongoing
efforts to manage the very large and valuable agricultural trading
relationship between our two countries,” he said.
Vanclief said Feb. 18 he assured Veneman he would be in Washington as
planned, with his objections to proposed farm aid in tow.
“I told her I would be visiting Washington to take every opportunity I
could to express our concerns more directly in Washington in early
March and that will take place,” he said.
His reception on Capitol Hill among members of Congress, many of whom
suspect the reported exchange between Veneman and Vanclief is closer to
the truth than the denials, will be cool at best.
But Vanclief said Feb. 18 that the farm bill debate is “very fluid”
since the House of Representatives and the Senate have conflicting
versions of new farm legislation.
Both versions have substantially higher farm subsidies.
The Canadian minister is heading to Washington to argue that increased
subsidies fly in the face of commitments made by Veneman and other
American representatives at World Trade Organization talks in Doha,
Qatar, just three months ago.
He is preparing to ask them to “walk the Doha talk.”
