Democrat Senators Want U.S. AWB Investigation
Senators urge USTR to investigate whether the Australian Wheat Board violated U.S. trade law or WTO rules.
Compiled by staff
Published: Apr 4, 2006
In a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman, five Midwest senators urged the USTR to investigate whether the Australian Wheat Board has violated U.S. trade law or World Trade Organization's rules and to take enforcement actions if such violations have occurred.
The letter was signed by ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Tom Harkin, D-Iowa; ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee Max Baucus, D-Mont.; Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.; Bryon Dorgan, D-N.D. and Ken Salazar, D-Col.
"U.S. farmers should not have to compete with foreign governments in international markets," Harkin says. "AWB's violations of the UN Oil for Food Program show a clear willingness to break international rules. This puts American wheat farmers at a distinct disadvantage."
The UN's Oil for Food Program was designed to assist hungry Iraqis while the country was under trade restrictions. Iraq was allowed to sell some of its oil in order to purchase food for hungry Iraqis while it was under trade embargo. A United Nation's audit of AWB's participation in its Oil for Food Program revealed that it secured wheat contracts by providing the Iraqi government roughly $220 million in kickbacks to the regime of Saddam Hussein.
The senators' letter urges USTR to examine whether AWB's kickbacks constitute an unfair trade practice under U.S. trade law or WTO rules and take appropriate enforcement action.
Monopoly control over a country's agricultural exports, as AWB has over Australian wheat, generally distorts global markets. The letter urges this matter to be considered through ongoing negotiations in the WTO.
"The whole point of the WTO negotiations is to create more open and transparent markets," Harkin adds. "AWB's monopoly on wheat trade prevents that from happening."
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Tagged: wheat, UN
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