The ruling was a victory for the Canadian swine industry and its U.S. customers and a clear defeat for the U.S. National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), the organization that filed this trade petition.

Last week, the NPPC issued a press release complaining about these same payments. The NPPC is wrong on the facts and wrong on the law. Its press release contains numerous errors such as its assertion that Commerce identified illegal Canadian farm support payments. The U.S. Government found no merit in the NPPC's claims that there are illegal subsidies being paid to Canadian hog farmers. Losing is not winning - no matter how hard the press release tries to "spin" the facts.

Farm support payments are a fact of life in the U.S., Canada, and the global agricultural industry. The result of the recent decision in this trade case is that the U.S. Government has found that Canada continues to "do it right," under U.S. law and the rules of international trade. Furthermore, payments made to Canadian farmers have not harmed the U.S. pork industry.

Canadian hog producers play a vital role in the North American swine industry. Canadian swine exports to the United States offer significant value to independent customers in the United States. Hundreds of American family farmers buy piglets from Canada and raise them for slaughter in the United States. We call on the NPPC to recognize that Canadian hogs exported to the U.S. are fairly traded, and are not harming the U.S. industry, and to withdraw what has become an unnecessary and counterproductive trade issue between our two countries, and that has the potential to harm a significant number of U.S. hog producers and processors.

The Canadian Pork Council is an umbrella organization, located in Ottawa, representing the interests of its nine provincial members, and through them, all swine producers in Canada. Among its many tasks, the CPC works to maintain export access for its members, including defending their interests in trade actions.

For more information, visit The Canadian Pork Council website

Source: PRNewswire - 13th September 2004