Can you feel the warm breeze in the west? We need it here to dry out the waterlogged fields.
Vanclief furious after Bush signs new farm bill
Belleville Intelligencer
By Derek Baldwin
The Intelligencer
with Canadian Press files
Federal Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief was furious at the signing of a sweeping new farm bill by U.S. President George W. Bush Monday that he believes will not only have ramifications across the world, but will also hurt Canadian farmers.
Vanclief vowed Canada will go toe-to-toe with Bush to try and overturn new U.S. legislation that will hand $180 billion U.S. ($280 billion Cdn) to American farmers over the next 10 years.
The bill cannot go unchallenged by the international farm community, said Vanclief, given that some predict the American political largesse domestically will heavily decimate some quarters of an already beleaguered Canadian farm industry.
Only weeks after an emergency policy mission by Vanclief and a Canadian delegation to Washington, D.C. to try and change a few minds on the farm bill, Vanclief was livid that Bush forged ahead with the signing despite a surge of protest the world over.
"I'm furious about it," said Vanclief at his home late Monday after returning from business in Chatham and Toronto. "We made our views known, the world has too. I gather from the president's comments that they could care less what other people think."
Vanclief said Bush is hurting not only Canada and other smaller countries who can't possibly compete with such vast trade-distorting subsidies, Bush is also hurting American farmers who will become dependent on handouts from Washington.
"This will make their farmers less competitive. They are making their farmers wards of the state."
Vanclief vowed that Canada has little choice left but to knock heads with the United States at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and challenge the subsidies as destructive to the international marketplace.
Canada will have to put the new farm bill under a microscope and vet it line by line to determine where the legislation does not stand up to world market rules, then challenge the bill, said Vanclief.
"We've made it clear if we see areas that aren't compatible, we will challenge them," said Vanclief, who will hold discussions with agriculture ministers from India and the European Union early Tuesday in reaction to the Bush signing.
Vanclief said smaller countries who depend on pulse crops (lentils and peas) will be devastated by the new subsidies under the farm bill that will artificially prop up the American harvest of such crops and hurt other countries.
The largesse, meanwhile, is being given to two million U.S. farmers at a time when the administration is predicting a $100-billion deficit."
Vanclief furious after Bush signs new farm bill
Belleville Intelligencer
By Derek Baldwin
The Intelligencer
with Canadian Press files
Federal Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief was furious at the signing of a sweeping new farm bill by U.S. President George W. Bush Monday that he believes will not only have ramifications across the world, but will also hurt Canadian farmers.
Vanclief vowed Canada will go toe-to-toe with Bush to try and overturn new U.S. legislation that will hand $180 billion U.S. ($280 billion Cdn) to American farmers over the next 10 years.
The bill cannot go unchallenged by the international farm community, said Vanclief, given that some predict the American political largesse domestically will heavily decimate some quarters of an already beleaguered Canadian farm industry.
Only weeks after an emergency policy mission by Vanclief and a Canadian delegation to Washington, D.C. to try and change a few minds on the farm bill, Vanclief was livid that Bush forged ahead with the signing despite a surge of protest the world over.
"I'm furious about it," said Vanclief at his home late Monday after returning from business in Chatham and Toronto. "We made our views known, the world has too. I gather from the president's comments that they could care less what other people think."
Vanclief said Bush is hurting not only Canada and other smaller countries who can't possibly compete with such vast trade-distorting subsidies, Bush is also hurting American farmers who will become dependent on handouts from Washington.
"This will make their farmers less competitive. They are making their farmers wards of the state."
Vanclief vowed that Canada has little choice left but to knock heads with the United States at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and challenge the subsidies as destructive to the international marketplace.
Canada will have to put the new farm bill under a microscope and vet it line by line to determine where the legislation does not stand up to world market rules, then challenge the bill, said Vanclief.
"We've made it clear if we see areas that aren't compatible, we will challenge them," said Vanclief, who will hold discussions with agriculture ministers from India and the European Union early Tuesday in reaction to the Bush signing.
Vanclief said smaller countries who depend on pulse crops (lentils and peas) will be devastated by the new subsidies under the farm bill that will artificially prop up the American harvest of such crops and hurt other countries.
The largesse, meanwhile, is being given to two million U.S. farmers at a time when the administration is predicting a $100-billion deficit."