Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Opening trade with Cuba a priority for grain industry

By Sarah Hills, 12-Dec-2008

Potential changes to US trade policy with Cuba once president-elect Barack Obama takes office would significantly boost grain markets, the USDA has said.

There has been speculation that Obama may lift a long-standing trade embargo with Cuba, and if trade were to normalize, the US has the potential to dominate this growing grain market, according to the United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service.

The embargo limits American firms from conducting business with Cuba, although a relaxation of this was agreed in 2000 allowing the sale of agricultural goods.

Currently the US share of the Cuban market for agricultural imports is between 25 and 30 percent of Cuba’s total agricultural imports, USDA figures show. Exports are mainly soybeans and soybean products, corn and corn products, wheat and wheat products, rice and poultry meat.

But Rebecca Bratter, director of policy at the US Wheat Associates (USW), said that opening trade with Cuba is a policy priority for USW and the entire US wheat industry in 2009.
She said: “US wheat market share in Cuba is still well below the average 80 percent in the rest of the Caribbean.

“Easing the embargo and the gradual removal of trade barriers between the US and Cuba should translate to significant upside sales for US wheat producers.”

She added that population, market size, historical ties, shared interests, and proximity make Cuba a natural and significant market for US wheat.

Presently, US-Cuba export regulations increase the transaction costs relative to the comparable costs incurred by other exporters. These higher costs can offset, in part, the shipping advantage that the US has being in such close geographic proximity to the Cuban market.

Exports

Cuba has also consistently ranked among the top ten export markets for US soybean oil, dry peas, lentils, dry beans, rice, powdered milk, and poultry meat.

The USW said that around 500,000 MT of US wheat per year is exported to Cuba under the Trade Sanctions and Export Enhancement Reform Act (TSRA).

Bratter said: “While President-Elect Obama stated his intention to lift the embargo as part of his campaign platform, the issue was conspicuously absent from the presidential debates and final days of the campaign and left doubt about the opportunity to change the US trade relationship with Cuba.

“However, the current consensus suggests the 111th Congress will take up the issue quickly after it is seated in January.”

Cuba imports around 60 percent of its food. However, this month there were strong signals that the country is about to embark on a GM crop program to reduce its dependence on food imports.
The USW promotes US wheat and provides comprehensive assistance to US wheat buyers, millers, wheat food processors and government officials around the world.

Source: Food Navigator-USA.com

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Launches Global Food Safety Monitor

In a new e-newsletter, Global Food Safety Monitor, IATP's Steve Suppan will "cover the challenges of setting strong international food safety regulations that protect public health. In the first issue, Steve writes about the U.S.-Korea Beef dispute, attempts to reach a food safety agreement between the U.S. and China, and a U.S. dispute with the European Union over chicken exports."

In this first issues, Steve Suppan says, "We won’t neglect good news. If a new pathogen detection test shows promise, if good food safety legislation is approved or if a company does more than required by law to ensure that traded food is safe, we will endeavor to report it. We hope that the readers of this bulletin will not only respond critically to it, but send some of that good news our way."

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Local and Traded Food

Reasonable people may believe that there are relative benefits to be derived from locally-produced food and from food traded over a longer distance (including internationally). Local food advocacy has become very prominent, and its views have often been expressed at the expense of traded food. While not disputing the value of local food, it appears to have acquired a very heavy ideological burden: Local food is good for (local) farmers, it is good for consumers, for the environment, for the local economy, and for overall health and nutrition. Moreover, local food is represented as being fresher (no matter how long after harvesting it is purchased), it is safer, and it tastes better. This is a lot to expect of food simply on the basis of how far away from a consumer it was grown.


On the other hand, internationally-traded food is often villified, regardless of the type of food it is, who produced it (and under what conditions), who sold it, or who prepares or eats it. Take as one example the International Society for Ecology and Culture's report on "Rethinking California's Food Economy," which states that "economic globalization is at the heart of almost every problem of the food system."


While international trade is only one component of "economic globalization," and food is only one set of products traded internationally, this is a heavy burden for international-traded food to bear. It is time to rationally re-assess and begin to re-engineer the international trade in food before we are all forced by locavores to grow our own or the industrial food giants to eat theirs.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Sustainable Food Trade Project Launched

The Houston Center for Food System Research and Development has launched a "Sustainable Food Trade Project." The Project has the goal of transforming criticisms of the "food trade" into dynamic mechanisms by which more sustainable food systems can be developed. The Houston Food Trade Policy Forum will post developments from this project and solicits comments.