What about CWB sales to Algeria?
Here are the two latest letters between the CWB and US Wheat Associates:
"USW responds to CWB
In response to the article “Special deals revealed” in the December 28, 2006, issue of Wheat Letter, USW President Alan Tracy received a letter from Mr. Greg S. Arason, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) on January 30, 2007.
Mr. Arason’s letter:
Dear Mr. Tracy:
I noticed your December 28, 2006, Wheat Letter and its reference to Algeria. We have taken the liberty of advising the contents of your newsletter to Mr. Kacem, the Director General of the Office Algérien Interprofessionnel des Céréales (O.A.I.C.).
Mr. Kacem has advised us that some of his comments in the original article in the French daily were not properly interpreted by the journalist. Mr. Kacem feels the relationship between the CWB and O.A.I.C. is a commercial one first and foremost and that prices are based on international market values at the time of business.
A review of the original press article in French clearly shows that at no point does Mr. Kacem say that the O.A.I.C. enjoys “very low prices.” The main message in the Algerian newspaper article centered on the positive commercial relationship the CWB and O.A.I.C. have enjoyed since the early 1970’s. That longstanding commercial relationship is also built on quality assurance, mutual confidence and technical support.
I felt it necessary to provide you with our view on this matter. I ask that you correct this misunderstanding by reprinting this letter in the next edition of your Wheat Letter.
Yours truly,
Greg S. Arason
President and Chief Executive Officer
************************************************** ************************************************** ************************************************** **********************************
Mr. Tracy’s response:
Dear Mr. Arason:
We received your letter of January 30, 2007, presenting your view on an article published December 28, 2006, in Wheat Letter referencing a news article quoting Mr. Mohamed Kacem, the Director General of the Office Algérien Interprofessionnel des Céréales (O.A.I.C.). You make one specific point and one specific request I’d like to address.
You indicate that “at no point does Mr. Kacem say that the O.I.A.C. enjoys ‘very low prices.’” After reviewing the original article published in French December 17, 2006, on page six in La Liberté, Quotidien National D’Information, we agree that the translation we used originally was inaccurate, and we apologize to Mr. Kacem for quoting him incorrectly. However, the article does attribute the following statements directly to Mr. Kacem:
“The guarantee is that the Canadian government carries out the quality controls on the products,” he [Mr. Kacem] adds, stressing that the selling prices in Algeria are well-studied, since in fact preferential prices are applied to our country. This preferential price saves Algeria several tens of dollars per tonne…“There is no other country which grants such advantages to us.”
Thus we believe the meaning of the statement matches the conclusion we made in Wheat Letter that the buyer believes he got below-market prices. Parsing the language of the translation does not change the message that CWB appears to have bought its durum market share in Algeria at the expense of western Canadian producers.
You also asked that U.S. Wheat Associates reprint your letter in the next edition of Wheat Letter. We are happy to do so along with the correctly translated article from Liberté, Quotidien National D’Information as well as to acknowledge our inaccurate original translation. In return, we ask the Canadian Wheat Board to reprint this letter on its Web site where your letter to USW is posted.
Sincerely,
Alan T. Tracy
President"
http://www.uswheat.org/
Here are the two latest letters between the CWB and US Wheat Associates:
"USW responds to CWB
In response to the article “Special deals revealed” in the December 28, 2006, issue of Wheat Letter, USW President Alan Tracy received a letter from Mr. Greg S. Arason, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) on January 30, 2007.
Mr. Arason’s letter:
Dear Mr. Tracy:
I noticed your December 28, 2006, Wheat Letter and its reference to Algeria. We have taken the liberty of advising the contents of your newsletter to Mr. Kacem, the Director General of the Office Algérien Interprofessionnel des Céréales (O.A.I.C.).
Mr. Kacem has advised us that some of his comments in the original article in the French daily were not properly interpreted by the journalist. Mr. Kacem feels the relationship between the CWB and O.A.I.C. is a commercial one first and foremost and that prices are based on international market values at the time of business.
A review of the original press article in French clearly shows that at no point does Mr. Kacem say that the O.A.I.C. enjoys “very low prices.” The main message in the Algerian newspaper article centered on the positive commercial relationship the CWB and O.A.I.C. have enjoyed since the early 1970’s. That longstanding commercial relationship is also built on quality assurance, mutual confidence and technical support.
I felt it necessary to provide you with our view on this matter. I ask that you correct this misunderstanding by reprinting this letter in the next edition of your Wheat Letter.
Yours truly,
Greg S. Arason
President and Chief Executive Officer
************************************************** ************************************************** ************************************************** **********************************
Mr. Tracy’s response:
Dear Mr. Arason:
We received your letter of January 30, 2007, presenting your view on an article published December 28, 2006, in Wheat Letter referencing a news article quoting Mr. Mohamed Kacem, the Director General of the Office Algérien Interprofessionnel des Céréales (O.A.I.C.). You make one specific point and one specific request I’d like to address.
You indicate that “at no point does Mr. Kacem say that the O.I.A.C. enjoys ‘very low prices.’” After reviewing the original article published in French December 17, 2006, on page six in La Liberté, Quotidien National D’Information, we agree that the translation we used originally was inaccurate, and we apologize to Mr. Kacem for quoting him incorrectly. However, the article does attribute the following statements directly to Mr. Kacem:
“The guarantee is that the Canadian government carries out the quality controls on the products,” he [Mr. Kacem] adds, stressing that the selling prices in Algeria are well-studied, since in fact preferential prices are applied to our country. This preferential price saves Algeria several tens of dollars per tonne…“There is no other country which grants such advantages to us.”
Thus we believe the meaning of the statement matches the conclusion we made in Wheat Letter that the buyer believes he got below-market prices. Parsing the language of the translation does not change the message that CWB appears to have bought its durum market share in Algeria at the expense of western Canadian producers.
You also asked that U.S. Wheat Associates reprint your letter in the next edition of Wheat Letter. We are happy to do so along with the correctly translated article from Liberté, Quotidien National D’Information as well as to acknowledge our inaccurate original translation. In return, we ask the Canadian Wheat Board to reprint this letter on its Web site where your letter to USW is posted.
Sincerely,
Alan T. Tracy
President"
http://www.uswheat.org/
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