CWB vs WTO

[freenorth]

Steve Verhuel Canada's chief ag negotiatior has been making presentations stating that Canada will comply with the WTO and that the
CWB will have to make adjustments and has few if any allies when it comes to the CWB.

Canada will have to delink the CWB from government regarding the government guarantees to the CWB, CWB borrowings and CWB initial payment guarantees to name a few issues. There is also the issue of how the government would account for a provision regarding a default in the CWB bonds (some $6b). There is a good article on this on page 71 of the Dec 04 Top Crop Manager magazine by the chair of the Barley Growers.

Anyone figured out yet how the CWB will adjust to the new trading rules?

[boone]

May I suggest ankle gaurds might be in order.[:{)

[wd9]

By getting railcars for 1$.

[boone]

Yes Incognito that should be guards!

[boone]

wd9, your view is like that namesake tractor hard to steer, and a hard seat. What do you mean, didn't the FRCC end up with the cars?

[freenorth]

Actually this is a separate issue from the cars. How many $$$$ will the
CWB ask the federal government for to assist them with this transition
and will the federal government comply?

It may take more than ankle gaurds to protect them.

[Incognito]

I don't want to be the keeper of the red pen, Boone.

[wd9]

You're right Boone, this issue has nothing to do with ownership or control of infrastructure like the cars, just the guarantees. What was I thinking!

[boone]

????? Now I don't want to be accused of going soft on CWB, however; how come only American farmers can be patriotic here. Now some of you may have heard of Americon subsidies here (PL.480) public law 480 opened the door to grain giveaways all around the globe for the last 50 yep 50 years, they have had a half dozen different inducements to undermine the economies of developing worlds and play benevolent grand puba as they toil to straighten out their dowery fees for global miscegenations by plying food to the most recent keeper of the gate. But why do we as a unpatriot bunch of little pinheads always hold up our pathetic little machinations like they were somehow the equivalent. (sorry for the length) But why? What lies smoldering in our makeup that makes us so ready to be subservient???

[wd9]

Boone, your patriotism shines thru in your original answer.

The CWB will adjust no problem, they are after all a corporation. I'm thinking I'll have a harder time adjusting by paying for mistakes or perhaps paying the $6B back to Canadians as opposed to them being forgiven by the government guarantee.

Don't get me wrong, Canada has nothing to bring to the table that won't seriously hurt Canadian farmers, unlike other countries. The loss of the guarantee will only hurt us as wheat producers.

Does anyone think this is a good thing to producers? Please explain how.

[TOM4CWB]

Boone,

How about that 14.5% tarrif on CWRS that could be going south... instead of paying an extra $70/t ocean freight?

Doesn't this hurt all of us?

And as hopper cars/handling systems infrastructure was one of the main reasons this tariff was put in place... is the rail car issue not just going to freeze the tarrif or even allow more grains to be added to the list?

I understand new cars can haul 110t instead of 85t the old ones haul... a 20% increase in efficency... which means we will pay more to haul less for longer... if we keep these cars around.

Further, the rail car group expected to have all these cars fixed up before they were turned over for the $1.

What are the chances this will happen?

So obviously the cost of repair will probably be millions upon millions... not free by any stretch.

There is 80 billion a year for Canada, and 16 billion a year (presentation by Grain Growers of Canada on Friday @ Alberta Barley Commission mtg.) for Alberta if we can get rid of all tariffs.

Now that would pay for a few leasing new 110t rail cars... wouldn't it Boone?

[carebear300]

There is no quarantee, as I see dealing with the americans(due to past experience) that even if we do away with the wheat board and don't get into the subsidization of the purchase(guarantee or whatever) that the americans will remove that subsidy as I see it. Now I may be completely wrong but nothing has been shown to me by there past actions to think that they just won't drum up some new excuse to put a tariff on our wheat or am I wrong?

[agstar77]

At current world prices ,whatever those might be, we cannot help but export below our cost of production as do the americans . That means they can always claim we are dumping no matter what we do, ergo we should not give up anything as we will get nothing in return.

[boone]

Tom4cwb: I don't disagree with your points here,,,but the railways appear to be scared 'SHIRTLESS' of this FRCC bunch getting power over these cars, what are they really afraid of. And don't start with this inefficiency thing. Remember these are the companies that pulled up the double track west of Jasper because they didn't need it at that moment. These boys wrote the book on the subject. They have more power than God in this country, an irrefutable fact. If the FRCC can run as a business why should I care if the R.R. feet go to the fire.

[freenorth]

The complete elimination of export subsidies is a valuable objective. In
oats there have been times when they were over $1/b. The reduction in
tarriffs can also contribute significantly to our revenue.

Does anyone really think the present system is working? If so for who?

Canada cannot stand alone and expect to get meaningful improvements.
Canada will comply, if we don't we'll only be putting in place even
more barriers to trade. You have to give up something to get something it's not rocket science.

So why not figure out how to turn this mixed enterprise into a delinked entity and offer farmers choice and value added opportunity.