Canadian Corn Growers Challenge Imported US Grain

November 2, 2005 — 

Canadian corn growers from Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba charged last month that subsidized US corn was being imported into Canada at prices below the cost of production. The Canada Border Services has launched an investigation.

Canadian pork and livestock producers, however, are concerned that tariffs placed on US corn would hurt their bottom lines indicating that more costly grain would simply increase their cost of production without a subsequent increase in market price. Clare Schlegel, President of the Canadian Pork Council, estimated that a duty on US grain would increase the price of hog feed $40cdn/ton or approximately $10cdn/market hog. This, in turn, would result in fewer pigs being fed out in Canada and expansion in US hog production.

Source: Farmscape.ca (Episode 1955) http://www.farmscape.ca/f1Scripts.aspx