Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Fascist Oligarchs Attack Cute Cuddly Canadians -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Snowshoe who wrote (1084)	10/17/2004 10:37:21 AM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1293

Canada upset after U.S. sets preliminary duties of up to 15 per cent on hogs STEVE LAMBERT WINNIPEG (CP) - Another trade battle erupted Friday as the U.S. Commerce Department announced preliminary plans to impose duties of up to 15 per cent on imported live Canadian hogs. Reaction on the Canadian side of the border was swift. "Over the next six months, this could have a huge impact financially on our industry," said Karl Kynoch, chairman of the Manitoba Pork Council. "It could be $50 million." Government and hog industry officials in Alberta and Saskatchewan also lashed out at Washington, calling the move disappointing and unfair. In a preliminary ruling, the U.S. Commerce Department said Canadian producers have been dumping hogs at below-market prices. A final determination is scheduled for March 7, 2005, after industry representatives have had time to comment. Kynoch said Canadian producers have been selling hogs at a loss, but only because they have to compete with other suppliers in the U.S. "We're not dumping. We are selling into a market that we don't totally control the price of." But the U.S. National Pork Producers Council said it was Canadian hog imports that drove down prices in the first place. "Canadian hog producers unfairly benefit from huge subsidies that cause overproduction in Canada and allow Canadian producers to sell their hogs in the United States at artificially low prices," Jon Casper, a past president of the council, said in a written statement Friday. "The flood of low-priced hogs from Canada has pushed down U.S. hog prices and inflicted severe financial hardship on U.S. hog producers." While Kynoch is hopeful the tariff will be lifted in March, he suspects many producers will go out of business if it is maintained. Paul Hodgman, with the Alberta Pork Producers Development Corporation, said the U.S. is practising protectionism. "We've seen it on softwood lumber, steel and the BSE situation," he said from Edmonton. "There's a perception that we are heavily subsidized, which have proven to be not true." The duties would cover all live swine from Canada except breeding stock. The penalties range from 13.25 per cent on Ontario hogs to 15.01 per cent on premium hogs. The rate for all others was set at 14.06. The extra costs will eat up many producers' entire profit margins, Kynoch said. International Trade Minister Jim Peterson said the federal government "will continue to strongly defend our industry as this process moves forward." But Manitoba Agriculture Minister Rosann Wowchuk said Ottawa should go much further and review its free trade agreement with the U.S. "I'm going to be in touch with the federal minister to say this trade agreement is inadequate, how do we make improvements to this agreement to ensure that our producers are not always at the short end of the stick?" Wowchuk said. "Our trade agreement is very dysfunctional. We've had similar issues with our wheat board, we've had the issues with softwood lumber." Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Mark Wartman called the tariff another disappointing development in Canada-U.S. relations. He called it "another example of an unwarranted U.S. challenge to legitimate trade in an integrated North American market." Canada exported about 7.5 million hogs to the United States in 2003, worth about $390 million US.

To: Snowshoe who wrote (1084)	10/23/2004 12:27:17 AM
From: Tommy Moore	Respond to of 1293

This is a bit over the top for this Kanuck, but with regard to the rigged tariff, we should take the offensive. Instead of thankin the mericans for only crippling us for the last 5 years, we should demand repayment (over and above repayment of illegal tariffs) for damage caused by this (Il)legal wrangling. Really in the context of the hundreds of billions spent on the war on oil, I mean terror, whats a couple of billion in DAMAGES,(isn't that the merican way) earmarked for individuals, small companies and devastated communities. Either we have free trade or we don't. pull the plug on cheap hydro, cap our gas and sell the Oil to the Chinese. Letum run their SUV's on corn oil. Consumption hogs need to learn some manners.