Eastern Mouths

[parsley]

Agstar,

I don't know if you were asking Ian White that question, or if you were indulging in solitary musing, or if it was a question for debate.

I assume it was the latter, and therefore have taken the liberty of providing a more suitable thread for discussion.

The point is, Larry Hill is working against Western farmers. He and the single desk Directors of the CWB worked against access, at the WTO, to open and free trading in G8 countries.

Those are the countries who can best afford to pay profitable prices to DA farmers.

When farmers are voting this fall,in the CWB elections, they should remember who the CWB and Larry Hill worked so hard to support....Quebec and Ontario.

The CWB is a statuatory instrument of the Federal Government and the kiss of money to Eastern voters, and the CWB Directors flew up on the turkey roost into line.

Parsley.

[parsley]

In today's Globe and Mail, Barrie McKenna says it best in the article "TRADE India nixes WTO deal to cut tariffs Report on Business":


"Indeed, Canada was excluded from the main discussions in Geneva, leaving Trade Minister Michael Fortier to spend the past week in bilateral talks with other trade ministers. "


Agstar, Canada was relegated to hiding out in the boys' bathroom. So the first thing lost for Western farmers was any semblance of represention that was listened to and respected. Not good.


Who did the WTO want to listen to?


"In the interests of speeding up negotiations, WTO chief Pascal Lamy had designated seven trading "powers" to hammer out a deal for everyone else. They were the United States, the European Union, Japan, Australia, Brazil, India and China - representing a cross-section of developed and developing countries. The plan was to get a deal among those powers, and then present the text to the full WTO."

What did the rest of the WTO flock, including Canada, do?


"Mr. Fortier, echoing several of his counterparts from the 153-member WTO, talked optimistically about resuming talks in the "not-so-distant future."


Trip anyone? With wives. Geneva in September is nice, I hear.


Listen to the kicker...Canada's own Fortier having the NERVE to promote a FREE TRADE excursion:


QUOTE
"But he also said Canada, like the United States, would forge ahead with bilateral free-trade deals to expand access for its exporters in Europe, South Korea and elsewhere. "Canada is a trading nation, and the growth and prosperity of our manufacturers, service providers and agricultural producers are improved by access to new markets," said Mr. Fortier, who has been on the job slightly more than a month. UNQUOTE


So we have an Eastern Supply Management promoter, speaking on behalf of Western Farmers, advocating a free trading mission, with no intention of free trade at all. Sweet Gezzus.


Now, here's the reason for a different voting choice for Western farmers, but the government's hand-clapper for Ontario and Quebec during election campaigning:

QUOTE
"Just as importantly, the failed talks stand out as a missed opportunity to deal with the key impediments to freer trade in agriculture, and many emerging areas, such as services. The round would also have begun the process of dismantling protectionist trade rules. "No question this is a lost opportunity, for international business," Mr. Herman said. UNQUOTE

Larry Hill and the CWB Directors, AND THE GOVERNMENT have done their utmost so that the East can retain supply management, eye up cheap Western feed now that ONLY Western Canada remains export-crippled, and continue to download work and costs, even the national CWB licensing costs, on the Prairies.

I would suspect, just like the CWB appears to be stealing organic markets, the CWB will assist Ontario/PQ to steal Western conventional wheat and barley markets because.... YOU GOT IT...there are MORE VOTERS IN THE EAST.

Even the Globe and Mail knows pigs can fly:

"But Mr. Fortier and other ministers acknowledged there was a multitude of unresolved issues standing in the way of a deal, suggesting a breakthrough was still a long way off. Canada, like nearly all other countries, has fought to keep key sectors outside the WTO umbrella.


Canada, for example, has insisted that the supply management system, which regulates dairy and poultry production, be kept off the table. It has also jealously guarded the right of the Canadian Wheat Board to be the sole seller of Canadian wheat on world markets, over the objections of the United States and the EU."

Gerry Ritz and Larry Hill did indeed spend time in the bathroom together.

A lot of time.


So what has Eastern Canada lost?

Nothing.


So what has Eastern Canada gained?

Wheat Board Minister Gerry Ritz and the Federal Government behind them 100%.

And what has Western Canada gained?

The privilege of paying WTO expenses.I bet Ritz sends in a bill to the CWB.


The Globe says it best:

"The WTO estimates the deal envisaged in Geneva this week would have boosted trade in farm products to the tune of $35-billion a year and the industrial sector by $95-billion a year."


Turkeys get the last word in the G&M:

"Canadian poultry and dairy farmers, who had insisted on continued protection of their sector, said they were simultaneously disappointed and relieved at the talks' collapse. "The talks didn't seem to be favouring our interests so I guess no deal is better than a bad deal," said Mark Davies, chairman of the Canadian Turkey Marketing Agency."


Parsley

[agstar77]

Giving away the single marketing desk for nothing is not our best interest. It may be in the best interest of our competitors. Anything we have sacrificed has not changed the world trade picture. Subsidies are far greater in the U.S. and in E.U. They have to come down a long way to meet our level. Why should we give up any marketing power until we see a genuine reform in the E.U. or the U.S? I don't begrudge the farmers who benefit from marketing boards.

[LWeber]

"Why should we give up any marketing power...?"

Agstar:

How did the marketing power benefit your farm in 2007/2008?

[TOM4CWB]

agstar77,

It is painfully obvious... that the CWB has lost massive amounts of cash for 'designated area' grain growers.

This clearly cross subsidises Supply management and livestock growers... as well as the CDN Consumer... and food companies.

And you will still... with a straight face... claim the CWB 'extracts' a premium... FOR 'designated area' grain growers? What kind of drugs are you folks using?

[parsley]

The marketing power of the CWB is that it supplies cheap milling wheat to Eastern Canadian flour mills.

The CWB's # 1 customer.

Eastern mouths. Eastern jobs. Eastern votes.

National Energy Program
National Wheat program

Parsley