U.S. pork producers unhappy with Commerce ruling

U.S. pork producers unhappy with Commerce ruling    A coalition of American pork producers expressed both “surprise and disappointment” over a U.S. Commerce Department ruling that found that live hog imports from Canada were not subsidized enough to warrant countervailing duties.
   “It is public knowledge that the Canadian producers have received large amounts of subsidies over the years,” said Jon Caspers, a pork producer from Swaledale, Iowa, and past president of the National Pork Producers Council. “We expect that when the department reaches its final determination, there will be an affirmative determination of countervailable subsidies.”
   On March 5, the council, along with state pork producer groups and individual U.S. pork producers, filed antidumping and countervailing duty petitions with the federal government.
   On May 7, the U.S. International Trade Commission found that there is a reasonable indication of injury to U.S. pork producers from unfairly traded hog imports from Canada.
   The Commerce Department said Tuesday that after investigating 22 Canadian government programs it found that the total net subsidy rate is below the minimum required for imposing countervailing duties.
   Early next year, the Commerce Department is expected to issue its final subsidy determination followed by the final ITC investigation.
   In a related case, Commerce has postponed a preliminary ruling concerning whether Canadian hogs are being dumped on the U.S. market. That ruling, which could impose duties, is due by Oct. 15.
   Canadian hog producers praised the Commerce Department’s decision. Canada’s Minister of International Trade Jim Peterson reportedly said his country’s hog industry is a “fair international trader.”
   In 2003, U.S. imports of hogs from Canada amounted to $389.3 million, a 27 percent increase over the previous year.