Canada Western Red Spring wheat can once again enter the United States, duty free. A U.S. tariff that stopped imports of Canada’s largest crop since 2003 has been fully dismantled, cementing a major NAFTA victory for western Canadian farmers. On February 24, the U.S. Customs notified all American ports of entry that imports of Canadian hard red spring wheat are no longer subject to any duties.
“After three long years, the American market is open to our wheat again,” said CWB board chair Ken Ritter, a farmer from Kindersley, Saskatchewan. “Our valued U.S. customers can once more access high-quality wheat from Canada.”
The CWB appealed the American tariff, imposed after the North Dakota Wheat Commission launched an anti-dumping, countervailing duty suit against Canadian wheat in 2002. The NAFTA panel ruled there was “no substantive evidence” to support the claims that led to the 14.2-per-cent tariff, halting Canadian exports to the U.S.
Had the tariff continued to halt Canadian wheat exports into the U.S., it could have cost tens of millions of dollars each year in lost sales opportunities for Prairie farmers, depending on market conditions and grade pattern. In the year before the tariff, the CWB sold about one million tonnes of CWRS into the U.S., worth about $250 million.
Trade harassment from American interest groups has been ongoing since free trade began between the U.S. and Canada in the early 1990s. This last case was the 14th unsuccessful attempt to stop Canadian wheat from entering the U.S. market.