Wheat, Lent and trade

During the past Lent and Easter season, there was a lot of time to reflect on life in general, on world events and on ways to make the world safer.

Governments can’t seem to get along and until people of the world figure out that they themselves can actually control the outcome, the world will continue down the same path their governments are on.

A way to help right the situation is through fair-trade agreements. Although the world of agriculture is taking a beating in the market place at the present time due to trade negotiations, I do believe the current administration including the U.S. Trade Representative is heading in the right direction with the idea of fair trade.

Since I am a wheat farmer, several months ago I sent a letter to the head of the advisory committee that I am on with USTR. The letter was in regard to what I call an unwritten agreement between the United States, the world and Australia concerning international wheat trade.

In the letter, I pointed out the fact that Australia has access to the majority of international wheat markets in white wheat and there was never a formally written negotiation to arrive at the monopoly Australia enjoys. However, not mentioned in the letter was an unwritten agreement pertaining to the Iraqi wheat market between the United States and Australia during the Iraq war. If you do the research you will find that before the Iraq war the U.S. had good market share for wheat sales in Iraq, yet during the war you will notice not a bushel of U.S. wheat was sold to Iraq for a period of five years. The market was given to Australia.

When the letter arrived at USTR, I was informed that USTR was really not the place to seek resolves for my concern, but no one suggested where the letter should be sent. I assumed that since USTR deals with trade negotiations, the situation should be dealt with by USTR. Perhaps the letter should have gone to the State Department instead.

Wheat like many other products has basically two markets, the domestic market and the international market. For winter wheat in Kansas the markets are split evenly with half of our wheat going to the domestic market while the other half relies on export to the international market.

It would be very easy for the United States to gain market share within its own domestic market. To start with we need to take back the U.S. market given to Canadian wheat. To do this we simply need to treat Canadian wheat coming into this country as “feed wheat.” This would mirror the way Canada treats U.S. wheat going to Canada. There is no need to address this inconsistency by going through the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Currently, NAFTA is being renegotiated and KORUS has been completed while other agreements are being looked at. A war of words is fueling trade disputes with China and at the forefront is steel and aluminum. Power to those industries! I am with them as long as wheat is not left behind. Wouldn’t it be nice if winter wheat currently enjoyed 70 percent of the domestic market, as does steel, instead of 50 percent and we were negotiating for a bigger percentage share of the market?

Internationally, U.S. wheat would gain ground by China finally living up to its World Trade Organization trade rate quota on wheat. This quota would amount to an average Kansas wheat crop. Although the Brazilian TRQ is small compared to that of China, it would make a difference in our wheat world.

There is something that our farmers and the grain industry can do to affect a positive change for wheat without totally relying on our government and trade deals. The change would enhance both the domestic and International markets.

Farmers in the hard winter wheat area need to switch a large enough portion of hard red to hard white wheat. Then the wheat industry needs to begin competing with Australia in some of their un-negotiated trade agreement white wheat areas.

There are many discrepancies in the world pertaining to trade. Many times wheat is used as a scapegoat and that is ironic. During Lent and Easter, there was only one grain talked about during all of those weeks. It was wheat. Through the ages wheat has been mankind’s food staple, even at the Last Supper.

—Ron Suppes is a farmer in Lane and Scott, Kansas counties. He also serves on various state and national boards.