Influential American political representatives continued their assault last week on Canada’s right to sell grain into southern markets without limits.
In both Ottawa and Washington, tough talk flew but Canadian comments were restrained as officials said they were more interested in reducing the temperature of the rhetoric than in heating it up.
Americans continued to insist Canada should respect the spirit of a one-year, 1.5 million cap on exports agreed to in 1994.
House of Representatives agriculture chair Bob Smith, of Oregon, published a letter written to Canadian deputy agriculture minister Frank Claydon, insisting Claydon had promised last spring to abide by the cap.
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Instead, Canadian exports south this year have exceeded 1.5 million tonnes.
“In our discussions, there was an agreement from Canada that wheat exports would stay broadly within the levels included in the (1994 agreement),” he wrote in the letter.
No promise made
In Ottawa last week, Claydon was preparing a response denying he had made such a commitment. Canada only agreed to keep Americans informed of the best Canadian guess about future export levels.
However, Agriculture Canada was shying away from firing a tough broadside at Smith, who has clout on Capitol Hill and who could become a political thorn in Canada’s side if he gets more riled.
The official Canadian response was that there may be some political confusion in Washington over Canada’s obligations, but there is no confusion in the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the U.S. trade department.
Julian Reed, a Toronto-area Liberal MP and parliamentary secretary to the Canadian trade minister, said in an Oct. 3 interview that the latest American claims of a Canadian-accepted limit are mystifying.
“Our position is that there is no cap,” he said. “We never accepted a cap past one year. I don’t know why this has come up again, whether it is a misunderstanding, or a created misunderstanding, or politics as usual.”
Meanwhile in Washington, North Dakota senator and persistent Canadian critic Byron Dorgan said he would try to disrupt president Bill Clinton’s attempt to win congressional approval for “fast track” trade negotiating power unless the administration cracked down on Canada.
Fast-track authority would make it easier for the U.S. to negotiate and win congressional approval for new free trade deals with Latin American countries.
“The president wants fast-track negotiating authority but I intend to insist that before we do anything, we darn well better address the problem of the flood of grain that’s coming over the border,” the senator said in a statement issued from his Washington office.
He said USDA figures show that Canadian exports of spring wheat south this year are 35 percent and 435,000 tonnes over the 1994 limit. Durum sales are 21 percent higher than the cap had been, he said.
