Farm-Scape, Episode 1584

The Canadian Pork Council is applauding a preliminary US Department of Commerce ruling which rejects the imposition of countervail duties on live Canadian hogs entering the US.

Petitions filed this spring by the National Pork Producers Council accused Canadian exporters of dumping illegally subsidized hogs into the US and requested countervail and antidumping duties be imposed.

A US Department of Commerce countervail duty investigation has determined government supports provided to Canadian producers are not large enough to merit countervail duties.

CPC Executive Director Martin Rice says the ruling is further evidence that Canada is a fair trader of live hogs.

"Based on all the information submitted to them from the federal and provincial governments and from information submitted by the seven individual producer respondents on their use of such programs, the Department of Commerce preliminarily determined that countervailable subsidies are not being provided to producers or exporters of live swine from Canada.

It is subject to verification by commerce officials who will visit the governments and visit the operations that submitted information to verify the accuracy of that information.

It is not the end of the case but it bodes well for the Canadian industry's claim that we are operating under the same rules, the same market conditions as the US producers and that we have a North American industry where Canadian production compliments US production, US export trends and performance and that we're not enjoying any advantages relative to our American counterparts based on this information."

The countervail duty investigation is one of three being undertaken by the US government. A preliminary ruling on the dumping investigation is expected in mid-October.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.