U.S. CORN GROWERS BLAST CANADA CORN RULING

  Canada's ruling in favor of a duty on
  U.S. corn was a keen disappointment to the National Corn
  Growers Association and has set a dangerous precedent for other
  nations to follow, said Mike Hall, lobbyist for the
  association.
      "The French corn growers will clearly charge ahead now and
  just change corn to corn gluten feed" in their complaint, Hall
  told Reuters.
      A Canadian government agency ruled today that U.S. farm
  policies are causing injury to Canadian corn farrmers and
  supported an earlier imposed countervailing duty of about 85
  cts per bushel.
      "This was cleary a political decision," Hall said. "The
  amount of corn we export to Canada is insignificant."
      The unexpected ruling appeared to be based on the agrument
  that Canada bases its corn prices on U.S. futures prices and
  that American farm policy has driven down these prices, thus
  causing lower prices to Canadian farmers and larger government
  payments through its farm stabilization program, Hall said.
      Hall said this is a new definition for injury, but that
  other nations might also now apply this same argument to attack
  U.S. farm programs.
      The French corn growers could now charge that U.S. farm
  programs create an unfair subsidy for corn gluten feed, Hall
  said. The French have long wanted to control the imports of
  U.S. corn gluten feed into the community, saying that the
  imported feed was unfairly displacing European grain.
  

