USSR WHEAT BONUS RUMORS PERSIST DESPITE DENIALS

  Grain trade representatives continued
  to speculate that the Reagan administration will offer
  subsidized wheat to the Soviet Union, while U.S. Agriculture
  Department officials said there was no substance to the
  reports.
      "It's pure fiction," said one senior official at USDA's
  Foreign Agricultural Service, referring to the rumor that the
  administration would make an export enhancement offer to Moscow
  in the next two to three weeks.
      An aide to Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng who asked not
  to be identified said there was nothing to substantiate the
  speculation, which he said was started by "somebody fanning the
  (wheat) market." Wheat futures strengthened today, partly on the
  basis of the speculation.
      One lobbyist with close connections to the Reagan
  administration said a Soviet trade team told private grain
  trade officials in New York last week that Moscow would buy as
  much as four mln tonnes of U.S. wheat, much of it before
  mid-year, if it was "competitively priced."
      Alexander Ivlev, an official with Amtorg, a Soviet trading
  organization, told Reuters he had no information to
  substantiate the rumors of an imminent wheat subsidy offer, but
  said that Moscow "would consider" buying U.S. wheat if it was
  competitively priced.
      "We don't care if it is EEP, what we (the Soviets) are
  looking for is competitive prices," Ivlev said. "If they (the
  administration) are interested in selling it (wheat), they
  should find ways to do it."
  

