Dorgan Bill Gives U.S. Farmers Price Break

April 12, 2001

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) has introduced a bill (S 532) designed to allow Canadian pesticides to be distributed and sold in the United States. The legislation would amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) to permit a state to register a Canadian pesticide for distribution and use within that state. The legislation is co-sponsored by Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT), Conrad Burns (R-MT), Tom Daschle (D-SD), Tim Johnson (D-SD) and Kent Conrad (D-ND).

Keith Dittrich, president of the American Corn Growers Association (ACGA), said farmers have been "both victims and, occasionally, victors in the forced pursuit to harmonize trade of the products we raise and sell. Now it is time for the same harmonization of trade for the products we need and buy."

Many times, said Dittrich, agricultural chemicals sold in Canada, identical to those in the United States, can cost farmers south of the border as much as twice as much as their Canadian counterparts. Such disparity in price gives Canadian farmers an economic advantage. Trade harmonization already has reached the point that most food products inspected in Canada and exported to the U.S. are accepted with little or no further inspection. "If the inspection of the foods imported from Canada, eaten by U.S. citizens everyday, is sufficient, then why would we ever doubt their pesticide regulation?" asked Dittrich.

"At this time, support for this initiative has come from those senators representing states on the front line in our quest for equalization with our colleagues, those family farmers in Canada," explained Dittrich. "We are now asking for support from our legislators in the Midwest, Southeast, Southwest and all the other regions of the United States."

Dittrich explained that multinational companies that produce the crop protection products in question are the very same companies that were extremely aggressive in their support of recent international harmonization trade agreements. "They asked to get the governments out of production agriculture and allow producers to compete in the international marketplace. They should now stop hiding behind government regulations to protect their profits. It is time to put such hypocrisies aside."