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To: Mark Adams who wrote (45537)	2/11/2004 9:00:09 AM
From: Mark Adams	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

Bush to exclude sugar from free trade pact By Edward Alden in Washington February 11 2004 0:37 President George W. Bush made the final decision to exclude sugar from the free trade agreement completed with Australia last weekend, according to administration and agricultural industry officials. The White House decision, which shores up the president's electoral prospects in key states and avoids a bruising election-year trade fight in Congress, has raised new questions about the administration's willingness to stand up to domestic lobbies that oppose freer trade. Mr Bush has already faced international criticism over his 2002 decision to protect another politically powerful industry, steel, that is influential in several electorally important states. The deal with Australia was the first bilateral trade pact in which the US insisted that a product be excluded entirely. The agreement, finalised by Mr Bush and John Howard, Australian prime minister, in a Saturday night phone call, has drawn sharp criticism from members of Congress with a long history of supporting freer trade. Charles Grassley, Republican chairman of the Senate finance committee, called the sugar exclusion "a dangerous precedent". Cal Dooley, one of a handful of House Democrats who has staunchly supported the administration on trade, said: "It is a disgrace that this industry, representing less than one-half per cent of all US farms, is exempted from this agreement." The sugar industry has political influence in the US far beyond its small size. It is heavily concentrated in Florida, the most closely fought state in the 2000 election, and can rally farmers in both southern and midwestern states. The industry is also a large donor to Mr Bush's re-election effort. José 'Pepe' Fanjul, president of Florida Crystals, is one of just 165 donors to have raised at least $200,000 for the 2004 campaign. Robert Coker of US Sugar is among the 251 donors who have raised at least $100,000. Sugar companies have made $34,500 in direct contributions to Mr Bush this election cycle, part of more than $900,000 in campaign contributions by the industry to both Republicans and Democrats through November 2003. Ricardo Reyes, a spokesman for the office of the US Trade Representative, denied direct White House intervention, saying the USTR had long warned the Australians that sugar might be excluded. "At most this was an understanding that in order to get this thing passed [in Congress] we had to keep sugar off the table," he said. But Robert Zoellick, the US trade representative, made no public mention of the exclusion demand until a radio interview in the sugar-growing state of North Dakota late last month, just before the final round of talks with Australia. Australia, the world's third largest sugar exporter, had been hoping for inroads into the US as part of the deal. But the sugar industry launched a massive lobbying effort after the US agreed in December to a small increase in sugar imports as part of the Central American free trade agreement with five nations. US sugar quotas have resulted in a domestic sugar price averaging twice the world price in the past 20 years. Currently it is nearly four times the international price. news.ft.com

To: Mark Adams who wrote (45537)	4/29/2004 8:23:28 PM
From: Mark Adams	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Judge Blocks Expansion Of Canadian Beef Imports Associated Press April 26, 2004 8:54 p.m. BILLINGS, Mont. -- A federal judge on Monday granted a cattlemen group's request for a court order preventing the U.S. Department of Agriculture from expanding beef imports from Canada over concerns about mad-cow disease. The group sought a temporary restraining order as part of its lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Billings. R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America contends a USDA decision April 19 permitting Canadian imports of "edible bovine meat products," including ground beef, "increases the risk to human health and creates an adverse effect on the cattle industry." The lawsuit cited two recent cases of mad-cow disease -- one on a Canadian farm last May and one in a cow in Washington state in December that had come from a Canadian farm. When Canada reported its case of the brain-wasting disease in May, the U.S. responded by banning Canadian cattle and beef. It eased the bans later to allow imports considered at very low risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. But after the Washington state case of mad cow, some bans remained intact. Live cattle from Canada are still banned. The USDA's decision to expand Canadian beef product imports was to have taken effect immediately. Bill Bullard, chief executive of R-CALF USA, said the group sued after learning of the April 19 memo from USDA that said additional products, beyond boneless beef from cattle under 30 months of age that had been permitted, could be allowed into the U.S. from Canada. U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull granted the group's request for a court order. Judge Cebull said if imported beef products contain the "BSE agent," USDA's recent action "may result in a fatal, non-curable disease in humans who consume those products." "Since there are no requirements that imports of Canadian beef products be labeled to indicate the country of origin," he wrote, "once those products cross the border, they become virtually impossible to recover or segregate if additional cases of BSE are discovered in the Canadian herd." A telephone message left for a USDA spokesman after hours in Washington, D.C., wasn't immediately returned Monday. A message left for the U.S. attorney's office in Billings also wasn't immediately returned. Mr. Bullard on Monday called the order "a big win" for consumers and the U.S. cattle industry. "It's the first of what will be a long and expensive process in order to ensure we maintain the maximum level of safety in regard to imported products," he said. The U.S. imported almost 1.1 billion pounds of beef and veal from Canada in 2002, a source of competition for U.S. cattle producers. URL for this article: online.wsj.com