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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1989-09-06, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1989. Opinion Playing by their rules The recent ruling by the United States Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration that Canadian pork producers are unfairly subsidized proves what many people suspected when the Free Trade debate raged: if we want to trade with the United States we’ll play by their rules, trade agreement or no trade agreement. The American trade officials were able to identify just about anything in Canada as a subsidy to our farmers, targeting such Ontario programs as the farm tax rebate program, the Ontario Pork Industry Improvement Program and federal programs such as the feed freight assistance program as unfair subsidies. The officials, of course, managed to not find the equal number or more subsidies to U.S. farmers. Ironically the Ontario Pork Producers Marketing Board was one of the strongest voices among farm groups in favour of the Free Trade Agreement. Now their faith will be put to the test by the tribunal that will see if the U.S. has fairly applied its trade laws in making this judgement. The emphasis isn't on fair trade here, just on whether the Americans have applied their laws properly. Meanwhile farmers in commodities protected by production controlled marketing boards are also under attack. The U.S. has acted against import controls for ice cream and yogurt saying Canada can’t restrict the import of these products. It may be the first step in the undermining of the Canadian marketing system. Canadian food processors are already calling for the overhauling of marketing boards. On the CBC business show “Venture”, Sunday night, food industry leaders said they cannot compete with food imports from the U nited States if they pay the higher prices Canadian marketing boards give while the U.S. producers get cheaper raw materials. It’s just a matter of time before food production shifts south of the border and Canadians eat more American foods. Even if Canadian farmers keep their marketing boards, they may have no food processors to sell to. One food processor interviewed on Venture managed to turn the marketing system into a “subsidy” for farmers even though it’s designed to simply give farmers a fair return on their investment. Canada, he said, must find other ways to “subsidize” farmers. Yet theU.S. Commerce Department’srulingmakesitplain, it will search for anything it can call a subsidy as a way of winning trade concessions for American farmers. Despite all the talk about ‘ ‘fair’ ’ trade, let’s get one thing straight. Trade is big business: big, cut-throat business. There is no sense of fair play, only a search for leverage and advantage. If the U.S. has leverage it will use it to its advantage, fair or not. Will Canada be left with a food industry after free trade? The future doesn’tlook hopeful. Canadian farmers have been in trouble in large numbers even with the marketing systems and subsidy programs we now have. Small protections like crop insurance and tripartite stabilization plans are now being used by the U.S. as excuses to penalize Canadian trade. Without subsidies even more farmers will be in trouble. The one hope would have been marketing boards but those marketing boards may become useless if the processors can’t afford to process the food at prices that are higher than their American competition. Canadians, somewhat reluctantly, bought the argument of the Brian Mulroney government that Free Trade would be a good thing and that the dire predictions were wrong. So far the doom and gloom peopleseemtoberighton the mark. If the government can’t come up with a fair solution to the current farm trade problem the government is in trouble. And so are the rest of us who either live from farming or live in communities that depend on farming. A stream in Fall Mabel’s Grill Non-violence last hope? The use of non-violent demonstrations by blacks and their supporters to protest their exclusion from South Africa’s election today brings back memories of the civil rights movement in the U.S. south more than 20 years ago. Blacks taking over an all-white beach; blacks booking into the emergency ward of an all-white hospital; a black minister leading an “illegal” protest march and being arrested: it recalls the days of Martin Luther King and the use of non-violent tactics to make the power of the government-backed police look ridiculous. Non-violence worked in the U.S. Here’s hoping Bishop Desmond Tutu can make it work in South Africa and save the bloodbath that must come if the white minority tries to suppress the black majority much longer. There are people who will tell you that the important decisions in town are made down at the town hall. People in the know, however know that the real debates, the real wisdom reside down at Mabel 's Grill where the greatest minds in the town [if not in the country] gather for morning coffee break, otherwise known as the Round Table Debating and Filibustering So­ ciety. MONDAY: After seeing the big advertisements in the weekend newspapers trying to convince us the new consumer tax is a good thing, Tim O’Grady was saying this morning, now he can under­ stand why the tax had to be so high: to pay for the propaganda. Hank Stokes said he thought the ads weren’t so much to convince the ordinary people but to make the newspapers a little happier about having to collect tax themselves on every classified ad and paper sold out of a corner newsstand. You know, Billie Bean was saying, those pictures coming back from the Voyageur space ship make him pretty nervous. If a camera on that thing can take such close-up pictures of something that far away, who knows what the govern­ ment might be able to do with those things to catch tax cheaters. “I mean if I fix a guy’s car in his backyard and he gives me 20 bucks for it, who’s to know some govern­ ment satellite isn’t taking pictures of the whole thing to use against me in court for avoiding taxes.” He mentioned that secret space shuttle trip down in the States that everybody assumed was a spy satellite on the Soviets. “But who’s to know it wasn’t to spy on us Continued on page 6 P.O Box 429, BLYTH, Ont NOM 1H0 Phone 523-4792 PO Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels. Ontario, by North Huron Publishing Company Inc Subscriptions are pavable in advance at a rate of 517 £>0/yr (538 00 Foreign) Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error only that portion ot the advertisement will be credited Advertising Deadlines Monday, 2pm - Brussels, Monday, 4pm - Blyth We are not responsible for unsolicited new scripts or photographs Contents of The Citizen are @ Copyright Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough. Walton and surrounding townships. Editor & Publisher, Keith Roulston Production Manager, Jill Roulston Advertising Manager, Dave Williams Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968