Canadian Embassy Official Criticizes U.S. Policies

July 23,1999

D.G. Waddell, deputy head of mission at the Canadian Embassy in Washington told marketing officials that Canada has some complaints about U.S. trade policies, including U.S. "abuse" of anti-dumping and countervailing duty procedures. Lawyers are winning and taxpayers are losing, he says.

Speaking to the North American Agriculture Marketing Officials conference in Traverse City, MI, Waddell said despite "some scratchiness in the relationship," U.S.-Canada trade "is in very good shape." Canada and the United States also share "many of the same objectives" going into the World Trade Organization negotiations this fall in Seattle, WA.

He admitted the United States is an important market for Canadian wheat. "But it is wrong to believe, as some suggest, that a huge and abnormal volume of subsidized Canadian wheat is flooding into the American market and that the Canadian market is closed to American grains."

Canadian wheat shipments to the United States have averaged about 1.7 million tons over the past four years, he said. That represents about 3% of U.S. wheat production and accounts for about 5% of U.S. consumption, he added. "The value of Canada's imports of pasta and pasta products from the United States, roughly $80 million per year, continues to approximate the value of our durum exports to the United States."

Disagreements can be attributed "to the fact that we do not yet have free trade in some products." Canada maintains border measures for dairy and poultry. "For the United States," said Waddell, "it's sugar and peanuts." The major shortcoming of the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, from Canada's perspective, "is that it allows for the continued application of anti-dumping and countervailing duties within the free trade area."

An example of U.S. "abuse" of the anti-dumping and countervailing duty procedures involves cattle imports from Canada. Investigations "were initiated on the basis of a petition by a handful of cattlemen -- less than a half of 1% of U.S. cattle producers, not even by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association."

He added, "Washington trade lawyers are big winners. Taxpayers in both countries lose."