HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1992-09-02, Page 1Feature I Farm ■ News ■ Entertainment
Blyth girl
returns from
Australian exchange
See page 3
Farmers hear
environmental
ideas, concerns
See page 10,11
Susan Terpstra
1992
Furrow Queen
See page 17
2 Stratford plays
look at human
weakness, failings
See page 19
Time to get on with GATT deal,researcher says
Vol. 8 No. 35 Wednesday, September 2,1992 60 cents
End of summer (that never was!) party
While some may question whether or not we had any summer, last weekend officially marked
the end of summer at the BMG Pool. To thank the many young people who volunteered time
as junior lifeguards this year the pool staff held a party complete with free swimming, games,
supper and treats. Here a group enjoys a final swim as they compete in a rally.
Competitive spirit
Dr. Larry Martin, research chair of the George Morris
Centre at the University of Guelph told a Brussels
audience Aug. 25 that Canada should get on trade reforms
and stop protecting supply management.
Nitrogen control a problem
Too much nitrogen applied to
crops not only is a waste of money
to farmers, but a danger to the
ground water, Dr. Gary
Kachanowski of the University of
Guelph told farmers at the Soil and
Water Conservation Day near
Clinton, Thursday.
Nitrogen can be a boon to crop
grown but nitrogen applied to the
fields soon converts to nitrates and
the soil has no ability to hold
nitrates. Water will carry the excess
nitrates through the soil and into
farm drains or the ground water, he
said in explaining a monitoring sys
tem that has been set up on the
farm of Don and Alison Lobb near
Clinton where the conservation day
was held.
The monitoring system taps into
the Lobb's farm drains and mea
Man injured in farm accident
A 28-year-old Morris Township
man is in critical condition in Vic
toria Hospital, London, following a
farm accident Sunday afternoon.
According to a spokesperson
from the Wingham OPP, Murray
Hastings of RR4, Wingham was
baling hay on the Lot 4, Cone. 1
farm of William Gamiss at about
4:30 p.m. The spokesperson said
that Mr. Hastings used his foot to
try and clear some straw from the
intake of the baler. As he was kick
sures the amount of nitrogen in the
drains and the amount of water
Continued on page 15
ing the straw in, he was caught and
dragged into the baler. On entering
the slip clutch let loose, stopping
Mr. Hastings progress into the
baler.
Unable to free himself, Mr. Hast
ings remained pinned legs first, up
to the waist, until 11:05 p.m. when
Mr. Gamiss found him and freed
him, police said.
He -was taken to Wingham and
District Hospital by ambulance
then later transferred to Victoria.
Canadian trade officials should
scuttle their "balanced position " on
GATT negotiations and get on with
urging a new deal be signed, Pro
fessor Larry Martin of the George
Morris Centre told a select audi
ence in Brussels Aug. 25.
Professor Martin was in Brussels
along with George Morris himself
and Kathryn Cooper, Executive
Director of the agricultural think
tank, to talk to an invited audience
about the work of the Centre.
Outlining the recently released
paper on the proposals of Arthur
Dunkel for reform of GATT, Dr.
Martin said few farm commodities
would be significantly better off
under the Dunkel proposals than
there were before 1990, but the
1990 world doesn't exist anymore
with the trade actions of the United
States and the European communi
ty since then.
Under current conditions the
costs of accepting the Dunkel pro
posals are so small, and the costs of
not getting GATT agreement are so
large that "To be very blunt, Cana
da should stop having a balanced
policy." The "balanced policy"
urges a ban on subsidies that give
incentives that cause trade distort
ing exports, while calling for
strengthening of Article 11 which
allows countries to control imports
if it is part of a program of self-suf
ficiency that doesn't cause more
exports. Article 11 and the import
controls are essential to supply
management in areas such as dairy
products, chicken, turkeys and
eggs.
But Dr. Martin disputed some of
the arguments of those who want
Article 11 strenghtened. The real
target of GATT over 40 years, he
said, has been import quotas, not
tariffs. He claimed fears of a flood
ing of the market by imports if the
door to imports is opened are
Long weekend
approaches
The last long weekend of the
summer is approaching and many
businesses will be closed to mark
the holiday.
The Blyth Citizen office will
maintain normal Monday hours and
deadlines, however, while the Brus
sels office will be open from noon
until 2 p.m.
unfounded. Heavy imports in the
past have come at a time before
import quotas were to be instituted,
he said. In such times companies
are trying to establish a level of
imports they can carry on after the
controls. Now there would be no
incentive for massive imports, he
said.
He also dismissed fears that tar
iffs for dairy products would be
whittled down until they had no
effect. Yes there is a requirement
that tariffs must be reduced by 36
per cent, he said, but that is an
average. Canada could reduce its
one per cent tariff on beef by 57 per
cent, reduce the tariff on butter by
15 per cent and the overall effect
would be 36 per cent, he claimed.
Besides, he claimed, with the
power of the dairy and poultry
lobby, could anyone imagine a gov
ernment would allow anything but
a minimum level tariff reduction?
"If we don't get a decision on
GATT we've got real problems in
Canadian Agriculture," he said.
Canada has already lost one U.S.
countervail decision on pork and is
likely to lose one on durum wheat.
And "If someone ever brings a
GATT case against cheese, we're
dead in the water."
While he praised GATT propos
als, Dr. Martin told the audience,
which included Murray Cardiff,
Parliamentary Assistant to the Min
ister of Agriculture, he was more
critical of both the Canada-U.S.
Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and
the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) saying some
of the holes in those agreements
would be filled by new regulations
under the GATT agreement. The
U.S., he said, would be forced to
live by binding GATT decisions.
Asked by host Ross Procter what
would happen to Canadian agricul
ture if there is no GATT deal, Dr.
Martin painted a dramatic scene of
agriculture being wiped out in
southern Canada. Referring to a trip
Mr. Procter had taken to the Arctic
he said, with no GATT deal, there
would be about as many farms to
see in the south as there are in the
tundra.
But Morris township farmer Bill
Richards suggested Dr. Martin was
being naive when he felt other
countries would live up to the spirit
of the new roles. He talked about a
Continued on page 17