04/24/06 Canadian Corn & Oregon Water

Canadian corn and Oregon water rate hike. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. The Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) ruled last week that unprocessed U.S. grain corn imported into the country have not injured Canada`s domestic corn industry. The $1.65 per bushel duty that had been imposed on the grain will be lifted immediately, and all provisional duties collected will be refunded. American Farm Bureau Trade Specialist Chris Garza explains the decision from the Canadian government concerning U.S. corn imports. GARZA: U.S. corn producers should be very pleased with the outcome of the Canadian case on U.S. corn. Canada is a country that typically does not produce enough corn so therefore they have to import from the United States in order to take care of their livestock and other industry needs. Canadian corm producers have been diligently looking at U.S. commodity programs to see if there has been harm given to their program because their prices have been decreasing. Last November they decided to go to their government, the Canadian government decided to take out a case against the United States to basically investigate to see whether there is actual injury or not. Obviously the outcome of that case was that the government found that there was no injury being done and therefore we can continue to ship product into Canada duty free. According to the U.S. producer groups, the decline in Canadian feed prices was caused by an estimated 8 million metric tons of Canadian feed barley and wheat being placed on the market in 2004-05, combined with a 50% reduction in U.S. corn imports to Canada. If the duties on U.S. corn would have remained in place, the groups say, Canadian corn users would have faced rising prices, since that country does not produce enough corn for its domestic consumption. Recently farmers in the upper Klamath Basin of Oregon were dealt a tough hand, The Oregon Public Utility Commission ended a 100 year old discount power rate that gave irrigators, irrigation and drainage districts electrical power at less than 1 cent per kilowatt hour. If fully implemented, the tariff will increase annual power bills by 2,500 % for some farms. The Oregon Legislature last year passed a law that phases in any Klamath rate hike over seven years. Klamath Water Users Association, representing irrigators, has a petition before the California Public Utility Commission seeking a similar phase-in provision. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.