Congressmen Harken, Bedell call attention
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S.
Rep. Tom Harkin (D-la.) said
recently that the Canadian
government’s subsidizing of pig
exports to the U.S. has “not lived
up to the ‘good neighbor’
relationship the U.S. and Canada
have always enjoyed in the past.”
Harkin spoke after hearings
were held, by his agricultural
Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy
and Poultry to review the impact
of Canadian pork imports on U.S.
livestock producers.
Since 1977, Harkin noted in his
opening remarks at the hearings,
the import of live hogs from
Canada has increased tenfold and
the U.S. is now absorbing over 20
percent of all Canadian hog
production.
“While this still represents a
relatively small percentage of U.S.
production,” Harkin said, “the
trend is clear and disturbing. The
Canadians are using a domestic
price stabilization program to
subsidize and target their hog
exports into our northeastern and
midwestem hog markets.”
“I am convinced that this recent
influx of Canadian hogs is sub
stantially affecting hog prices in
lowa and elsewhere,” Harkin
added.
“In the past, Canadians have
always been our ‘good neighbors,’
but now our hog farmers are being
hurt by unfair trade. I don’t think
‘good neighbors’ would take ad
vantage of this situation,” Harkin
added after the hearings.
Testimony by the National Pork
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Producers Council revealed that
the Canadian government sub*
sidizes pork producers when the
market price falls below the last
five-year average, at 90 percent of
that average. That contrasts with
the fact that U.S. producers have
never received nor sought a
government subsidy of this nature.
“When you have this subsidy,
along with the current U.S. ex
change rate, U.S. markets are
obviously going to be much more
attractive to Canadian producers
than their own domestic markets,”
Harkin said.
Among the witnesses who
testified in the hearings was Mr.
Don Gingerich, representing the
lowa Pork Producers Association.
Harkin said he first learned of
the problem when his sub
committee held a field hearing in
Mason City, lowa a few months
ago. At that hearing a farmer from
Marion, lowa testified that local
hog prices were being affected by
Canadian hogs shipped into a
nearby packing plant.
Harkin and fellow lowa
Congressman Berkley Bedell are
sponsors of legislation that would
require the Secretary of
Agriculture to determine the level
of the Canadian hog subsidy and
for the Secretary of the Treasure to
impose an import duty to offset the
subsidy advantage enjoyed by
Canadian hog farmers.
“I am hopeful that we can
resolve the matter in a con
structive and cooperative
fashion,” Congressman Bedell
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to pork trade imbalance
said.
“The evidence shows that
Canadian pork producers have
taken advantage of these govern
ment subsidy programs and the
virtually unrestricted access to
U.S. markets which they enjoy to
sharply increase their exports to
the United States,” Bedell con
tinued. “Live hog imports, for
example, were 447,000 head in 1983.
The U.S.-Canadian trade gap in
AHI ad ACSH speak out on anti
(Editor’s note: As the controversy
over die low-level use of antibiotics
in livestock feed continues, the
following article, recently ap
pearing in a newsletter published
by the Animal Health Institute of
Alexandria, Virginia, seems
particularly appropriate.)
In 1977, FDA proposed to ban the
low-level feed use of penicillin, and
to restrict such uses of the
tetracyclines drastically. The
proposals were in response to an
ongoing debate over the
theoretical possibility that the
subtherapeutic use of these an
tibiotics in animal feeds might
somehow compromise their ef
fectiveness in human medicine.
The theory involves “antibiotic
resistance,” a process in which
disease-causing organisms
become resistant to antibiotics.
In a 1980 report to Congress, a
National Academy of Sciences
committee concluded that “the
hazard to human health has been
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pork last year totaled $236 million.
By contrast, U.S. pork producers
exported just $27 million to Canada
last year.”
According to Dr. Glenn Grimes,
a livestock economist at the
University of Missouri, the
Canadian imports may have cost
U.S. pork producers from $345
million to $554 million last year.
“All we are asking is that our
neither proven nor disproven.”
Faced with inconclusive in
formation, action was postponed
on the FDA proposals pending
further research.
But just because further FDA
action was delayed doesn’t mean
the controversy has abated.
Low-level or sub-therapeutic
feeding of antibiotics is, of course,
a common practice among
livestock producers because of the
positive effects it has on animal
growth and disease prevention.
The consumer benefits are well
documented. The USDA estimates
a saving of as much as $3.5 billion a
year on beef, pork and poultry
purchases. Despite the benefits,
some have called for an end to
antibiotic feeding.
In an attempt to force action on
low-level antibiotic use, even
before the current study was
finished, some critics petitioned
the government. They sought to
achieve through political pressure
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producers be able to compete
under fair and equal termS,”
Bedell said.
“There is no doubt, from what
we heard at this hearing today,
(May 24) that a significant trade
imbalance exists between the U.S.
and Canada and many of our hog
farmers’ problems are a direct
result of it,” Harkin said after the
hearings.
bioti
what could not be supported by
way of scientific investigation.
The Animal Health Institute took
immediate exception to the
criticism calling the charges
“unwarranted” and “misin
formed.”
“Contrary to the ‘in
discriminate’ use allegation
contained in the Natural
Resources Defense Council
(NRDC) petition, antibiotics, like
other animal drugs, are among the
most pervasively regulated ar
ticles in U.S. commerce,” AHI said
in a letter to the Secretary of
Health and Human Services,
Margaret Heckler.
“Pursuant to the animal drug
provisions of the Federal Food,
Drug, and Cosmetic Act, an
tibiotics used in animals must be
approved for safety to both
humans and animals and for ef
ficacy in the target animal species.
(Turn to Page D 5)
Local Representative
DAVID NEWMAN
(717) 299-9905
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