The Rural Voice, 1990-01, Page 34aybe its an old carryover
from my days in the ferti-
lizer retail business, but
I've always figured it's prudent to
know the other guy's price and market
philosophy. I believe such should also
be the case with international politics.
While on my U.S. crop tour this
past July, I was continually amazed at
the general respect., almost reverence,
that was being paid to U.S. agriculture
secretary Clayton Yeutter. It was
about this time that I made a mental
note of what side of the song sheet he
was singing off of. I hope this short
story gives you some idea about where
Yeutter is coming from as he makes
his impact on our lives over the next
months and years.
At 58, Clayton Yeutter oversees
100,000 employees and a $12 billion
budget. He is widely recognized as
one of the most qualified and artic-
ulate agriculture secretaries in history.
He continues to lease out his family's
farm in Nebraska.
There is no question about it.
Yeutter wants to "discipline" Canada.
He has personally encouraged U.S.
wheat growers to seek redress against
Canadian imports of durum wheat.
And during a satellite news conference
back in October, he said "the U.S. has
a long-standing desire to increase
subsidy disciplines on Canada."
"So," he added, " you folks out
there have the psychological support,
if we can call it that, of the U.S. gov-
emment in whatever might be done,
because we are just as interested in
seeing additional disciplining action
taken in the area of Canadian subsi-
dies as you are." He added: "Suffice
it to say that we have had concerns
with respect to a lot of subsidy pro-
grams in our neighbouring friend,
Canada."
I don't know what that sounds like
to you, but it sounds like "sic 'em" to
me.
In a recent interview, Yeutter was
asked about how he planned to regain
world market share for U.S. coarse
grains. His response was: "It's
regrettable that we've not responded
to that issue long bcfore this. The
delay has cost us market share inter-
nationally. We've been giving it away
on a silver platter to some of our
MARKET
SHARE
The plans of U.S.
agriculture secretary
Clayton Yeutter
(rhymes with "fighter")
Mervyn Erb is an independent
crop consultant and agronomist.
competitors. You cannot develop
market share unless you have some-
thing to sell. We simply have not
been the major player over the last
few years."
Now I ask you, does that sound
like the mentality of a man who is
going to run a successful retail busi-
ness? You bet it does. Does it sound
like he's going to sit by and allow
continued high land set -asides and
paid diversions, and watch supplies of
coarse grains get down to the back of
the bin?
No way. The USDA has "loosened
up" the 1990 wheat program because
of concerns about tight world stocks.
And what about the 40 -million acre
goal for the Conservation Reserve
Program (CRP)? Yeutter says that
may be too ambitious; 31 million
acres may be good enough.
Recently, Yeutter was criticized
for dipping into the Food Security
Wheat Reserve while also operating
the Export Enhancement Program
(EEP). "While I would prefer not to
tap the FSWR," he said, "we must
remain a reliable supplier. Just be-
cause stocks are tight, we cannot hand
our competitors market share on a
silver platter (where did I hear that
before?) To the degree we risk losing
market share due to export subsidies
of other nations, we have no alterna-
tive but to counter them. Fortunately,
the FSWR gives us that flexibility."
In fact, Yeutter wouldn't even rule
out cash subsidies in the event that
government stocks were exhausted.
In my opinion, a man with this
type of free -wheeling, hardball men-
tality isn't going to be a pushover at
the Free Trade Agreement negotia-
tions or at the GATT talks. The ob-
vious question is: who do we have
working for us? I hope he has a better
mind than whoever brought us metric.
After all, wasn't metric supposed to
increase our trade, give us an inside
track?
Just lately, Secretary Yeutter was
asked about his longer view — say in
1991 — of policy. He answered: "I
am taking a longer view — but much
further than 1991. My viewpoint
reaches out to the turn of the century.
I want to position agriculture skillfully
and effectively for a time frame five to
ten years out. Politically, it might be
more advantageous to take a short -run
view. But that would be a disservice
to agriculture. I'd rather take the po-
litical shots and do the right thing for
the long run than get political credit
for being a hero in the short run."
An observation made by Pro
Farmer magazine was that Yeutter is
the most internationally oriented
agriculture secretary in U.S. history.
In my book, that means he's going to
affect your hogs, your wheat, your
milk, your eggs, and whatever else
gets in the way.0
32 THE RURAL VOICE