North Dakota Wheat Whiners

[rain]

Once the CWB disappears I shutter to think what would happen with trade if some of the people responding to this thread where in control.

You guys will fight like hell to make changes here in Canada but it does not look like many of you would fight that hard once you got rid of the CWB.

Canola and oats trade with little fan fare that is true. Tom/Adam what do you think about the $.52/bushelf for wheat and $.30/bushel for corn? Or is all you two can fight is the CWB.

[rain]

sorry thats $.24/bushel corn

[AdamSmith]

Rain,

I'm a lover, not a fighter.

As long as people stay out of way of course. The CWB Act prevents me from making the choices I would otherwise freely choose to make. So I fight until they get out of my way.

American domestic subsidies are a red herring.

If Uncle Sam cut off the gravy train to their farmers they would have to make up the shortfall somewhere. That somewhere is with increased production and prices may actually fall if Uncle Sam stopped giving those guys welfare checks.

Export subsidies and all government interventions in the free market is the major culprit to better agricultural prosperity.

By the way Canadian pressure will never bring about lower American domestic subsidies. The only thing that will influence that event is U.S. domestic pressure from the urban non farm population.

[TOM4CWB]

Rain;

I am getting a massive payout on my CWRS, CPS and CWRW from the SPE... true enough it cost a premium, but still the same it is a gov. backed program that no private insurer could provide.

CWRS (HP) - $1.14/bu payment on covered production

CPS - $1.44/bu
CWRW - $1.41/bu

This will make my farm very comptitive with any US wheat farmer... I invested a fair premium, and now am rewarded by dismal CWB marketing performance...

I would rather get my total income from the market, as I am sure the average Alberta taxpayer would prefer as well.

All we are asking for is our basic human right that is given to us under international law, the right to sell our property to whom we want to associate with (be it the CWB or whoever), is this so wrong Rain?

[rain]

Adam and Tom.

Is what you are saying is that the only thing that matters is doing away with the CWB?

[Incognito]

WTO says Canada discriminates vs. US wheat-US aide


2003-12-22 22:08:21 GMT (Reuters)

WASHINGTON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - A World Trade Organization panel has ruled that Canada unfairly discriminates against imports of U.S. wheat, as the Bush administration contends, a U.S. trade official said on Monday.

In response to queries from Reuters, the official, in a prepared statement, said the confidential WTO ruling "found that indeed Canada unfairly discriminates against American wheat and grains."

The WTO ruling also found that the Canadian Wheat Board and other state-run trading enterprises in the world "limit fair and open trade," said the U.S. official, who requested anonymity.

A Canadian government official on Monday said the WTO panel had found that the Canadian Wheat Board operated legally.


UNQUOTE

This fight will be lost in Ottawa, the same place that the WGTA was lost. Either the Feds step and start negotiating or there won't be any tradeoffs. For 10 years we have had a chance for a made in Canada solution and now the times up.

And in the end, the Feds will take the WTO position: "we had to do it", just like the CROW/WGTA.

The sooner everyone realizes that it is all politics the better off everyone will be.

The Americans arent *issed that we are selling grain to the US. They are *issed that we sell 1/3 of our grain underneath the world price. The world price that they set by way of not one but three wheat contracts.

Give the CWB credit that they extract a premium on 1/3 of the wheat they sell - but there are not enough customers to extract that premium on an entire crop.

The CWB is taking market share from the US with better quality wheat and lower prices. If you think for a minute that we are buying market share at prices above the world price, you are sadly mistaken.

1/3 is sold above, 1/3 is sold at, 1/3 is sold below. Plain and simple.

Price transparency is the key. We had our chance to reform the CWB - we did not and now someone else is going to do it for us.

Kinda like passing on 13 billion; then 7 billion and settling for 1 billion for the Crow payout.

[TOM4CWB]

Rain;

Incognito has put it VERY clearly... if We as Canadians do not fix this mess... someone else will.

I have NEVER advocated getting rid of the CWB... however;

How do we get the CWB staff and directors to see that they are in an old boat headed for the crest of a huge waterfall... one that they nor their boat can survive the fall.

The only hope is that the CWB takes this situation seriously... and changes enough to stop slipping over the edge...

RAIN, the CWB needed to cash price barley back in 1996, as Commissioner Beswick clearly had set up... what happened?

Absolute power corrupts absolutely...

How do we get the CWB to cash price our grain during the crop year, we are still years away from this simple and reasonable marketing tool... how do we get the CWB to pay fair market value for feed wheat?

The CWB doesn't change because the treat of change is easier to ignore than the treat of distruction... by the way this has been the CWB tack;

Leave us alone to play our deceptive game,

or dismantle us totally...

we don't have any intention of operating by commercially responsible business principals.

THe CWB are the ones asking to be dismantled, not, TOM4CWB, Incognito, or AdamSmith.

[TOM4CWB]

Threat of change VS Threat of distruction.

THe CWB operates as if there is no choice... Leave us alone or dismatle us.

Hog Boards in Western Canada prove this is a cop out, as does the OWPMB.