Farm-Scape, Episode 2082

Lawyers representing the Animal Industry Corn Users suggest, if the Canada Border Services Agency follows its own guidelines, duties on US corn entering Canada will be reduced substantially when it announces final subsidy and dumping determinations March 15.

As the result of investigations into complaints from Canadian corn growers alleging harm from subsidized US grain corn dumped into Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency imposed provisional antidumping and countervailing duties totaling $1.65 US per bushel imported unprocessed US grain corn.

Peter Clark, who represents the Animal Nutrition Association of Canada, the Canadian Pork Council and the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, suggests inflated figures were used to set those duties.

"What happened is they inflated the cost of production.

They added in margins of things like 40 and 50 cents a bushel at the elevator when all of the economic literature says it's 10 or 11 cents. That really helps a lot.

They indicated that the corn had to be delivered, at the elevator's cost, from the farmers fields on average a hundred miles when we know that in the United States the average that an elevator will tend to draw within a 20 mile radius of the elevator and in fact most of it is within eight to 14 miles."

Clark suggests the more accurate numbers would justify eliminating the antidumping duty and significantly reducing the countervailing duty. Meanwhile the Canadian International Trade Tribunal is expected to issue its final injury determination in mid-April.

At that time, if it finds Canadian growers are being harmed by the US imports, the new duties will take effect but, if the CITT finds no injury, the case ends and duties already collected will be refunded.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.