DORGAN TO HOLD HEARING ON WHEAT CASE
9:30 AM, Friday, April 19
Monday, April 15, 2002
CONTACT: Justin Kitsch
or Brenden Timpe
PHONE: 202-224-2551
(WASHINGTON, D.C) --- U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) has scheduled a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee’s Trade Subcommittee Friday, April 19, to look into why the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has taken no action to halt unfair wheat sales by Canada in the United States despite finding that the Canadian Wheat Board routinely engaged in unfair trade practices that hurt U.S. farmers.
The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 AM, in Room 253 of the Russell Senate Office Building.
The hearing follows a February 15 finding by the USTR that the pricing practices of Canada’s Wheat Board are monopolistic and unfairly deprive U.S. wheat farmers of world market share. The finding came after an exhaustive Section 301 investigation, requested by the North Dakota Wheat Commission in October 2000.
The North Dakota Wheat Commission had asked that tariff rate quotas (TRQs) be imposed in response to the unfair trade finding. However, USTR has so far refused to apply TRQs, citing fears that Canada would take the United States to the Word Trade Organization (WTO). The lack of prompt action stands in stark contrast to the Administration’s March 6 announcement that it was imposing tariffs on imports of steel, on the heels of a Section 201 finding that foreign steel was hurting U.S. producers.
The U.S. Trade Ambassador said he would pursue the case against the Canadian Wheat Board at the WTO at some point in the future and consider undertaking anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations on Canadian wheat. Dorgan noted none of this is commitment to immediate action to stop the unfair trade practices and, even if and when implemented, those steps could take years to take effect.
Witnesses at the hearing will include the following:
FIRST PANEL:
SECOND PANEL:
Mr. Fisher will speak both as a petitioner in the 301 case and as a North Dakota wheat farmer.
Mr. Broyles is a wheat farmer from Montana.
Mr. Hunnicutt is counsel to the North Dakota Wheat Commission in the Section 301 case against Canadian wheat.
—END—