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Wheat group won't support FTA
WASHINGTON, D.C. (DTN)--The National Association of Wheat Growers March 8 became the second Wheat group to announce it would not support the U.S.-Australian free-trade agreement. The announcement appeared to reflect the end of a conflict within Wheat groups over whether NAWG would oppose the agreement or remain neutral.
U.S. Wheat Associates announced its opposition to the agreement several weeks ago, but Barbara Spangler, the lobbyist for the Wheat Education and Trade Committee, told DTN NAWG might remain neutral though the agreement did not include any reform by AWB Ltd., the successor to the Australian Wheat Board.
But NAWG President Mark Gage, a North Dakota farmer, said March 8 NAWG would not support the agreement because it did not include any reform by AWB, which sells all of Australia's Wheat overseas.
American Wheat farmers believe AWB's monopoly status allows it to engage in unfair trade practices. Gage said the group was pleased the agreement contained a clause that Australia and the United States would work together in the World Trade Organization to "develop disciplines on an entity's right to export."
He contended that the provision "leaves Canada isolated as the only major competitor opposed to negotiating such disciplines." The Australian Embassy didn't say whether the Australian government agrees with the NAWG interpretation of that provision.
A NAWG news release said "the potential conflict between these two goals - ending the monopoly vs. negotiating disciplines at the WTO--caused the delay in NAWG's issuance of a statement on the agreement."
The news release said NAWG's International Policy Committee, which includes representatives from the Wheat Export Trade Education Committee and U.S. Wheat Associates "addressed the perceived conflict and settled on the position of not supporting the agreement.
"The domestic Wheat industry had little to gain from a free-trade agreement with Australia, as we are fierce competitors in Wheat sales to third country markets. Chances of either nation shipping Wheat to the other are slim. Australia's position on negotiating (state trading enterprise) disciplines is very similar to the U.S. position on negotiating trade- distorting domestic supports; that it will not be done in a bilateral agreement, but can be addressed in WTO talks."
NAWG's release said while the language in the agreement is a "step forward," it's not "enough to win the Wheat industry's active support of the agreement."
Date: 3/18/04
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