N.D. wheat farmers challenge ITC ruling on Canadian wheat

N.D. wheat farmers challenge ITC ruling on Canadian wheat    The North Dakota Wheat Commission said it will challenge a trade ruling issued last week by the U.S. International Trade Commission regarding imports of hard red spring wheat from Canada.
   The ITC ruled on Oct. 5 that imports of this commodity from Canada do not cause material injury to U.S. growers, a reversal of its 2003 decision.
   “The facts of the case haven’t changed — only the members of the ITC have changed — since it found in 2003 that tariffs were warranted to stop economic harm inflicted on U.S. farmers by unfair imports,” said North Dakota Wheat Commission Chairman Harlan Klein in a statement this week.
   “Exports of Canadian wheat are still being subsidized and will once again impose a hardship on hard red spring wheat growers in North Dakota and surrounding states if allowed to flow freely across the border,” he added.
   Since the initial 2003 ITC decision, Canadian hard red spring wheat imports were subject to a 14 percent tariff. The North American Millers’ Association filed an appeal with the North American Free Trade Agreement Secretariat when the ITC made its initial decision. A NAFTA appeals panel remanded the determination back to the ITC earlier this year, calling the agency to correct nine specific faults.
   “Critical errors formed the basis for the original ITC decision, including ignoring the agency’s own analysis that showed U.S. millers almost always have to pay more, not less, for Canadian wheat,” said John Millier, president of Miller Milling Co. and chairman of NAMA’s ad hoc committee leading expertise in the case.
   NAMA praised the ITC for last week’s decision.
   “We will continue, as we always have, to look first to domestic suppliers for our spring wheat and durum requirements,” Miller said. “But we must not be prevented from securing alternative supplies from other sources when conditions require.”
   North Dakota Wheat Commission Commissioner Charlie Rohde called the millers’ effort to reverse the ITC’s 2003 decision reprehensible.
   “Our millers give lip service to their position that they oppose state trading enterprises,” Rohde said referring to the Canadian Wheat Board, which brokers all of Canada’s wheat exports.
   “They talk about buying U.S. wheat first,” Rohde said. “But in reality, they have little allegiance to American farmers and simply want the cheapest wheat possible whether fairly priced or not, without regard for the stability of their own best source of supply.”