CANADA’S WHEAT

Northern Advocate, 13 June 1931, Page 9

CANADA’S WHEAT

FREIGHT CUTTING THREAT

UNITED STATES INTERESTED,

(Received 10 a.m.) WASHINGTON, June 12,

The belief that farmers may ask Congress for an export debenture, or some other weapon in foreign markets, should the proposed cut in Canadian freight rates on wheat be reflected in the export quotations, has arisen in political and agricultural circles. Senator Borah, of Idaho, looks upon Mr R. B. Bennett’s plan fo absorb 5 cents a. bushel for transportation charges to the seaboard as an export subsidy comparable in some respects to a debenture.

As previously proposed, a debenture certificate on wheat would be worth 21 cents a bushel, or one-half of the amount of the tariff. A co-operative association, or a grain dealer, desiring to ship wheat abroad, would receive the world price, plus 21 cents for each bushel exported.

The opponents of the plan say it would lead to the dumping of the United States' surpluses and invoke serious foreign retaliation. Some visualise in the export debenture an incentive for worldwide price slashing, and predict that the subsequent situation would he worse, or at least not better, than the one for which a. remedy was being sought. The view is taken notably in the Federal Farm Board, which also opposes a further emergency stabilisation that already has burdened it with almost the entire United States’ carryover.