29 



mean what it says there. We are not talking about the full acquisi- 

 tion price for determining whether they are dumping below cost. 



The result has been Canada has gone from Durum wheat bush- 

 els coming into this market to over 14 million today. They have 

 fone from percent of this market to over 20 percent of this mar- 

 et. On Spring wheat they have gone from averaging 7 million 

 bushels a year for the 5 years previous to the Canadian Free Trade 

 Agreement to 35 million bushels today, a five-fold increase. And 

 that has nothing to do with inefficiency. It has nothing to do with 

 being more competitive. It has everything to do with the defects of 

 that agreement. 



Let me just say that Section 22 requires the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture to advise the President whenever he has reason to believe 

 that any article is being imported into the United States under 

 such conditions and in such quantities as to render ineffective or 

 materially interfere with any program or operation of the Depart- 

 ment. That is what the law requires. We believe, many of us be- 

 lieve, that those conditions have clearly been met. 



I was very encouraged at a Finance Committee hearing last week 

 to hear Ambassador Kantor say, number one, that this administra- 

 tion is closely considering moving towards a recommendation on 

 Section 22 with respect to Canada; number two, that the adminis- 

 tration supports my end-use certificate legislation that has passed 

 the Senate twice before. 



I would like to turn my questioning to the Secretary and just 

 say: Are you ready to follow the outstanding leadership of the 

 Trade Representative? [Laughter.] 



Secretary Espy. I have a memo on my desk from Undersecretary 

 Moos' office outlining in great detail an answer to the question of 

 whether or not these Canadian practices that you have mentioned 

 have materially interfered with our wheat program. I will be mak- 

 ing a decision shortly as to whether or not to endorse this idea and 

 move it to the next stage. 



Senator Conrad. Can you give us some idea of what your time 

 frame is? 



Secretary Espy. Well, the longer I sit here, the less time I can 

 read. [Laughter.] 



It is a memo of great importance to me. 



Senator Conrad. Well, let's assume that you get out of here 

 today. I think that is a safe assumption. Have you some sense of 

 when you might come to a conclusion? 



Secretary Espy. I have some sense that we do have a problem. 

 The Canadian Durum imports, as you said and as we all acknowl- 

 edge, are a huge problem for us. I have been to Canada. I have met 

 with Mr. Mayer on the question, and we have met them in tradi- 

 tional markets — with the EEP on wheat, the 32 million metric ton 

 EEP, the largest we have ever had in the USDA. 



Senator Conrad. Which we appreciated very much, by the way. 



Secretary Espy. Thank you, sir. Clearly that was an indication 

 that we want to meet our competitors toe to toe, but still there are 

 problems. The lack of transparency with the Canadian Wheat 

 Board, the rail subsidies, and many other things that we have not 

 et mentioned suggest to us that we should go a step further. But 



can't announce it today; neither can I really say when I am going 



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