Western Producer staf
Opportunistic politicians (is there any other kind?) are spraying charges of “sell-out” and “cave-in” at the federal Liberal government for its wheat deal with the United States. That might be considered poetic justice, considering the vitriolic abuse that the Liberals heaped on the government of the day when they were in opposition.
Whether or not the Liberals deserve abuse on those grounds, they don’t deserve it because of the wheat agreement. And some industry leaders are saying so.
The latest is Frank Anthony, chair of the board of directors of the Canada Grains Council. A former president of the Ontario Corn Producers Association, Anthony declared this week in a letter to news media that the 37-member Council advised the government to agree to one-year limits on wheat exports to the United States:
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“A negotiated peace was much more prudent that allowing the beaver to be skewered by the eagle’s talons.”
Not being constrained by diplomatic protocol, Anthony was able to deftly describe the real story behind the U.S. attack on Canadian wheat:
“American taxpayers are just now realizing that they have been hoodwinked by protectionist, narrow-minded farm lobbyists. The U.S. administration is heavily subsidizing U.S. wheat exports while artificially closing the border to Canadian imports, thus driving up the domestic price of durum wheat and pasta products for American consumers.
“Even though the American industry, and many on Capitol Hill, were embarrassed by these wheat-state lobbyists, they could not reverse an ill-conceived and panic-stricken promise granted by President Clinton in return for favorable votes in the House, and particularly the Senate, to endorse NAFTA legislation in November 1993.”
Earlier, wheat board chief commissioner Lorne Hehn also endorsed the deal, saying the alternatives were worse. By all accounts, the U.S. was prepared to unilaterally impose tighter limits if no agreement could be reached.
Current federal projections are that Canadian wheat exports to the United States will be down 23 percent from last year’s record level, but that number needs to be judged in context. Without a deal, the drop would almost certainly have been much greater.
Also, with more U.S. wheat being kept in the U.S., and U.S. export subsidies declining, Canada will have an enhanced opportunity to sell in overseas markets — which is where the wheat should have been going in any case, had it not been for trade-distorting U.S. subsidies.
