Questions May Hold Answers to Trade Problems
By Tracy Sayler, Communications Specialist; Minnesota Assn. of Wheat Growers & Minnesota Wheat Council
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Prairie Grains is the
official publication of
the Minnesota
Association of
Wheat Growers,
North Dakota Grain
Growers Association,
South Dakota Wheat,
Inc., and the
Minnesota Barley
Growers Association.
There are four questions that might hold the answer to why Canadian grain is attracted to the U.S. market, according to Hubert Esquirol, president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association: 1) Is it because the Canadian Wheat Board acquisition price of Canadian grain is too low? "Then your price looks so much better," says Esquirol. 2) Does the Export Enhancement Program artificially raise the U.S. domestic price? 3) Is it because of exchange rates? 4) Does Canada's handling and transportation system erode too much of the on-farm value of Canadian grain? Those are questions Canadian farmers want answered by the U.S.-Canada Joint Commission on Grains, established last August to find solutions to the two countries' small grain problems this year. Esquirol and James Miller, the U.S. chair of the Joint Commission on Grains, took part in the MN Wheat and Barley Growers' last convention. Miller reviewed the commission's objectives, and Esquirol offered one further fundamental question that should be answered by the commission: "Whether or not we can have harmony in wheat and barley trading under two different marketing systems. Until we deal with this, we're going to have problems."