Report from Geneva WTO talks

[wedino]

Canadian grain leaders surprised and alarmed after Day One in Geneva

April 20, 2005, Geneva Switzerland .

A delegation of western Canadian farm leaders arrived Monday in Geneva to
make the case for an aggressive stance re agriculture trade liberalization
during World Trade Organization (WTO) talks this week.

"We were surprised and alarmed to find that Canada is "on the outside
looking in" instead of driving the agenda," remarked Randy Hoback, SK farmer
and Chair of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers. "Canada is the third
largest exporter of agriculture and food products, and the fifth largest
importer. We used to be in the Top Four or Quad Group of Negotiators and
now we're not! Where is Canada?" Hoback queried.

Eugene Dextrase, Chairman Alberta Grains Commission, noted " I am alarmed to
hear that New Zealand and Australia, two Members of the pro- free trade
Cairns Group, are questioning our commitment to freer trade. They wonder
about Canada's credibility."

Doug Robertson, Chair of Alberta Barley Commission, noted the Americans and
Europeans are saying that Canada is protecting the status quo. "Everywhere
we go, we hear Canadian negotiators are hamstrung by having to protect
certain products."

Jeff Nielsen, Vice-President of the Western Barley Growers, was pleased to
note that the Barley Growers, Barley and Grain Commissions, as well as the
Wheat Growers, had all signed on today with the initiative spearheaded by
the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance. CAFTA today announced the launch of
the Global Alliance for Liberalized Trade in Food and Agriculture (GALTFA).
"We pride ourselves as four of the 39 founding organizations (from 15
countries on 5 continents) which will aggressively promote freer trade.

According to Grain Growers of Canada numbers Canada's grain farmers are
losing $1.3 billion annually at the hands of European and American
subsidies. Tariff protection adds to losses by reducing market
opportunities.

The Geneva Delegation includes representatives from the Western Canadian
Wheat Growers Association, Western Barley Growers Association, and Alberta's
Barley Commission & Grain Commission. The group grows wheat, barley,
canola, peas, oats - all of which are plagued by distorting subsidies and
punitive tariffs.

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Media inquires may be directed to:
In Geneva: 011- 44- 7834 865 730 (temporary no.)
In Canada: returning April 27, 2005.
Randy Hoback, Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association 306-747-8150
Eugene Dextrase, Alberta Grain Commission 780-926-1223
Doug Robertson, Alberta Barley Commission 403-819-8372
Jeff Nielsen, Western Barley Growers Association 403-816-0645.


Western Canadian Wheat Growers
502 - 45th Street West
Saskatoon SK S7L6H2
Canada
Phone: (306) 586-5866
Fax: (306) 244-4497
Email: info@wheatgrowers.ca

[parsley]

This is a positive step, Wedino; farmers are taking initiative. The farmer himself is the most interested in his bottom line and his farm.

Parsley

[agstar77]

Canada does not need to negotiate a reduction in it's subsidies it is the americans and europeans who have the big subsidy stick. If we offer anymore our agricultural producers will be done. These groups will be the deathnell of farmers but agri-business will love them. I can't figure out whether the grain growers are naive or deliberately out to destroy agriculture in Canada.

[TOM4CWB]

Agstar77;

I understand there is over a billion $ a year in benefits to us as grain producers for liberalised trade... no small matter.

I would take a market payment any day over a taxpayer subsidy!

[agstar77]

Yes,I would too , but the europeans and americans aren't going to lower subsidies even if we used an export tax!! Show me I'm wrong!!

[wmoebis]

I would like acceptable market pricing too! But where is that? The world market price is so low we can't make a profit. It doesn't matter who is selling our grain for us. Cargil, ADM or myself, we can't get anymore than what the world is willing to pay, unless we can get the US and EU to quit subsidizing. And we force the price up as world suppliers.
I personally think that we, through the CWB, are getting as much if not more than what the big US companies, that are running our grain handling system could/would get for us, and I sure don't have time to slip over to Japan to sell a couple of truck loads of wheat. But I don't mind paying someone else a small amount to do it for me (CWB). I am afaid of what the big US companies would charge us over time and we have sold all our own companies. Reminds me of the Sask. gov't sell off all your roadbuilding equipment at auction prices then pay highest price to get other companies to build your roads OR NOT.
Who is the taxpayer really subsidizing? WE HAVE TO GET THE TAXPAYER TO SEE THAT WE ARE REALLY SUBSIDIZING THE GRAIN COMPANIES, RAILROADS, FUEL COMPANIES, CHEMICAL COMPANIES, all other farm input suppliers.
We are not getting money and putting it in a big sock. We are paying the subsidies that the gov't used to give to the rail companies and other companies, through pricing and price gouging.
Someone tell me where there is a world market that will give me ten dollars a bushell for my wheat. That is where we need to be, but there isn't one so no one CWB Cargil ADM no one can get it. We need to have the gov't put a stop and a rollback on inputs then if the rail roads grain companies can't make it subsidize them. Take the heat and stress off of us.
How long do you think the taxpayer would put up with a straight out sibsidy to Cargil, CRP, or Esso? Not one minute but that is where taxpayer dollar is going not to me I am the middle man.

[Incognito]

wmoebis:

Do you know what #1DNS 14.0 is trading for in the United States?

Do you know what AWB's equivalent of our HRS 13.5 is trading for there?

I am just curious if you've made actual comparisons or just stating your opinion.

[wmoebis]

No I don't know for sure but neer as I can tell #1 DNS 14.5% is selling for about $4.53 US per US bushell, FOB pacific N.west.
I don't know about AWB.
These are my opinions only. I can't see why we need big USA companies in here moveing our Canadian grain to port and/or selling it for us. We as canadians should be able to do it ourselves. We will soon be like the cattle industry where the USA has control over all our middle profits. We as producers once had control over our industry we grew the wheat shipped it through our elevators into our port facilities and sold domestically and internationally through our marketing agency. All profits/losses at all levels could be linked back to us, if one area lost we made up in another. Back in the day when I was making money I hauled my grain 6 miles now my closest elevator is 80 miles. I was told that this was going to make me money well I have lost ever since. We had the crow in place I was told that get rid of it and I would be better off well I'm not.
If the profits that the livestock packers are making was passed back to the producers I don't think they would be hollering that they are making too much money and would sure lighten the burden of producer prices. I think we grain guys can learn from the cattlemen right now. They are sure talking about producer owned facilities.

[Vader]

My grandfather was a poor immigrant. He was not a farmer. He was a carpenter, a barber and a meat cutter. He belonged to a beef ring. Each of the other people in the beef ring had to supply an animal when their turn came around. Each week one of them would provide a cow for my grandfather to cut up and he would distribute it evenly to all the people in the beef ring.

No Cargill, no IBP, no Tyson. Just local processing.

wmoebis, you said
"We will soon be like the cattle industry where the USA has control over all our middle profits. "

Guess what. We are already there. ADM does the lions share of wheat milling in Canada and likewise for ConAgra when it comes to malting barley.

What the consumer pays for grain based foods bears no relationship to the price we are paid for grain. The retail price for grain based foods goes up with inflation and other food chain input costs.

One writer pondering the impact of WTO came up with this idea If the WTO process does in fact eliminate subsidies in the US, then those farmers will be forced to work with smaller margins. We all know how farmers respond to narrow margins. They increase production. The world produced a record crop of wheat, durum, soybeans and corn last year. We will suffer from low commodity prices for a couple of years while that inventory clears the system. What will commodity prices look like when the american farmers is forced to increase production because he has lost his subsidies? Remember Canada only produces 50 million tonnes of the six major grains, and a normal wheat crop is 20-25 million tonnes. US wheat production is in the range of 70 milllion tonnes annually. What is their potential?

[Vader]

I see in this weeks Western Producer that Cargill who is already Canada's largest beef packer is buying out Canada's third largest beef packer, Better Beef Ltd. of Ontario.

This will put Cargill in a position of processing 37,000 head per week or nearly one half of all Canadian Beef.