Iraq wheat trade under a cloud (10/7/06)
Iraq's trade minister on Sunday repeated his threat to reconsider trade deals with wheat supplier Australia unless it reopened an inquiry into the killing of one of his bodyguards by Australian soldiers.
Australia's defence force chief said last week that a military inquiry had cleared the soldiers of any wrongdoing.
Sudany's spokesman, Mohammed Hanoun, said the minister was "not satisfied" with the results and was unhappy with the failure of Australian investigators to talk to any of those wounded in the incident to get their accounts of what happened. (Reuters)

Australian wheat off to Iraq today (7/7/06)
Australia's first wheat shipment to Iraq since Baghdad banned AWB will leave for the Middle East today. The 50,000-tonne shipment, the first instalment of a 350,000-tonne contract, was being loaded in Geelong yesterday.
The $90 million sale was negotiated by Wheat Australia (CBH, GrainCorp and ABB joint venture) after almost three months of negotiations with the Iraq Grain Board. (The Australian)

Grains Council accusing Single Vision of "destabilising WTO discussions" (4/7/06)
The Grains Council of Australia has labelled the paper released by Single Vision Grains Australia on the wheat single desk as "misleading" and a threat to current World Trade Organisation discussions in Geneva .
GCA Chairman, Murray Jones , said reports overnight from Grains Council representatives at the WTO talks in Geneva indicate that the Single Vision Grains paper was being wrongly interpreted as a change in Australia ’s policy on the single desk.
“We are furious that the release of this report, at precisely the time when our Trade Minister and his team are working to reduce trade barriers against Australian agriculture in the WTO, has the capacity to cause enormous damage to our negotiating position."

DOHA Round of WTO Talks in crisis: NFF (4/7/06)
National Farmers’ Federation President David Crombie has wrapped up talks in Geneva during a crucial meeting of trade ministers, but ministers failed to make the necessary progress.
Despite Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile’s best efforts and leadership in trying to focus ministers and negotiators on the core issues of formula tariff cuts, sensitive products, special products and agricultural domestic support cuts, it is clear no narrowing of the differences has occurred.
Mr Crombie said that a stalemate was reached because of the lack of movement from the EU and the US on domestic agricultural supports
“It now looks most unlikely that agreement on a final Doha deal will be reached any time soon – this will be a severe blow to Australian farmers," Mr Crombie said in a statement.

Exporters to win from WTO deal with Russia (12/5/06)
Australian exporters are set to benefit from better access to the Russian market following Australia's successful bilateral market access negotiations with Russia through the World Trade Organisation.
Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, says the signing of the bilateral agreement in Geneva marks the end of bilateral negotiations between Russia and Australia during the process of Russia's application for membership of the WTO.
"The outcomes will improve trading conditions for Australian exporters and help provide a secure basis to expand our exports," Mr Vaile said.
"The deal covers Australian export interests in both goods and services and will enhance access for Australian exports in areas such as meat products, wine, wool, alumina and seafood, as well as mining software and services." (Farmonline)

World grain demand may outpace production next year, UN says (9/6/06)
Grain prices may rise in the coming year as production fails to keep up with demand, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
"World cereal demand may surpass supply in the year ended July 2007, pushing down stocks to an uncomfortably low level and continuing the steady upward trend in prices," the report said. The FAO also cited political uncertainties and surging energy prices, as well as "abnormal" incidences of natural disasters and animal diseases, as contributing to the downturn in stocks.

Farmers warn Bush on subsidies (6/6/06)
The American Farm Bureau and 11 other representatives of U.S. commodity producers warned President Bush in a letter Thursday not to offer further cuts of domestic subsidies in world trade negotiations.
The farmers said the US shouldn't go beyond its October proposal to reduce so-called trade distorting agriculture subsidies by 60 percent because other World Trade Organization members haven't offered comparable reductions of their own.
The American Farm Bureau is the largest representative of U.S. farmers, with 5 million members.
The 149 member nations of the WTO face a year-end deadline to wrap up negotiations on an accord that would update and expand the rules of international trade and investment. So far, they have failed to even craft the outline of an agreement amid disagreement over how much to reduce farm tariffs and subsidies. (Bloomberg)

Chinese corn imports to trigger price hike (17/5/06)
Growth in Chinese corn imports is expected to trigger a strong turnaround in prices, according to Michael Lewis, head of commodities research at Deutsche Bank. Over the next 18 months, Lewis says, China will move from becoming a net exporter of corn to a net importer.
Lewis added that China's accession to the World Trade Organization, strong gross domestic product growth and urbanization have helped to double agricultural imports into the country since 2002.
"The most noticeable growth in Chinese agricultural import volumes over the past few years has been in soybeans," he said. (Dow Jones)

US considers ending ethanol import tariffs (5/5/06)
The Bush Administration is considering lifting import tariffs on ethanol in a bid to alleviate any supply crunch of gasoline ahead of the peak summer demand driving season, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said.
However, he concedes, the power to actually lift the 54¢/ litre tariffs is out of the administration's hands. That authority lies with Congress, where any proposed policy changes to the ethanol import tariff scheme could face a huge challenge from key Republican leaders from farm states.

After missed deadline, WTO chief fears for talks (5/5/06)
Having missed the crucial 30 April deadline for achieving progress toward a global trade deal, the head of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy, said  he was increasingly worried the five-year- long talks would end in failure.
Lamy said that only 30 percent of the necessary work had been done by the April 30 deadline, aiming to reduce agricultural tariffs and subsidies and opening markets to industrial goods.
Now trade negotiators from the 149 members of the WTO have only five or six weeks to agree on a framework for cutting tariffs. After that, he said, the approach of elections in the United States and other countries will make it difficult to achieve any significant breakthroughs. (NY Times)

Farmers ask Wheat Board to sell canola  (3/5/06)
Some Manitoba farmers have proposed the idea of the Canadian Wheat Board selling canola next year.
Farmers who grow canola say prices for the commodity have been so low they lose money with every bushel they harvest – yet grain companies have been making record profits on the oilseed.
Wheat Board director Bill Nicholson says the board is willing to give the idea some serious thought. "It would need government approval to enact that provision in the act, and the group would also have to propose a marketing plan," he said.
Farmers, however, appear to be divided on the merits of the plan. While some agree that it's the answer to lower canola prices, others don't believe it will help. (CBC)

China discovers outbreak of Foot-And-Mouth disease (2/5/06)
China discovered the second outbreak in two months of foot-and-mouth disease among livestock in the western province of Qinghai. The Asian I strain of foot-and-mouth were discovered in four dairy cows on a farm in Haiyan County on April 26, according to the Ministry Of Agriculture. The national foot-and-mouth disease reference laboratory confirmed the outbreak, it said.
The ministry and the provincial government are taking emergency measures to contain the outbreak, disinfect the area and cull the sick animals. (Bloomberg)

Australian barley sales to Saudi Arabia rise 55% in 1st quarter (28/4/06)
Australian sales of barley to Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest buyer of the grain used to feed livestock, rose 55 percent in the first quarter, a U.S. agricultural report said.
Australia's exports of the grain rose to 1.23 million metric tons in the three months ended March 31, from 792,000 tons a year earlier, the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service in Riyadh said. Saudi Arabia's total barley imports reached 2.6 million tons in the quarter, 29%  more than a year earlier. (Bloomberg)

WTO trade meeting is canceled (26/4/06)
The April 30 trade meeting for the World Trade Organization has been canceled. According to the Dow Jones Newswires a WTO spokesperson said the WTO will not be in a position to make a decision by the end of next week. Plans will be announced May 1 on plans for the negotiations according to WTO Chief Pascal Lamy. He is expected to urge WTO members to work hard toward a late July deadline for another chapter of the talks.
With the announcement of the canceled meeting the fears of the talks collapsing are increasing. An agreement from negotiators is to be reached by July about how to open up trade in services such as construction contracts and banking. If a resolution is still not found in cutting tariffs in farm and industrial goods, the progress may be impossible.

Canada drops duty on corn imports (20/4/06)
Canada is dropping a planned duty of $1.65 a bushel on imports of U.S. corn.
The Canadian International Trade Tribunal has ruled that the Canadian corn growers have not been harmed by the imports. Another agency had agreed with Canadian producers that U.S. corn was unfairly subsidized, undercutting the price of the commodity in Canada. But the ruling from the trade panel, dated Tuesday, ends the case. The Bush administration complained to the World Trade Organization last month about the proposed duty. (Des Moines Register)

A win for free trade
US judge Richard Cebull refused to issue a permanent injunction against the USDA in order to block the importing of live cattle and beef from Canada. The Ranchers-Cattlemen's Action Legal Fund (R-CALF) petitioned the Court for a permanent injunction against USDA's rule, claiming that Canadian cattle and beef may be infected with BSE.

US, China sign trade pact for US soybeans
Thirteen Chinese soybean processing companies on Thursday signed 10 contracts with U.S. agricultural exporters to buy 4.98 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans and 20,000 tons of U.S. soyoil in calendar year 2006.
The soybean purchase agreements, which were signed during a ceremony at the Chicago Board of Trade, are the first in a series of signings the Chinese delegation will make as they visit the U.S. Additional contract agreements will be signed for further purchases in Minnesota on Friday, and Washington D.C. on Monday. The 13 companies comprising the delegation represent 67% of the soybean purchasing power of China. (Dow Jones Newswires)