U.S. Wheat Industry Hails U.S.-Colombia FTA Implementation
May 15
In a huge victory for U.S. wheat farmers, the United States and Colombia officially implemented on Tuesday a free trade agreement (FTA) first signed in 2006. The pact immediately eliminates all tariffs on U.S. wheat imports to Colombia and ends a significant tariff disadvantage U.S. farmers have faced compared to Canadian and Argentine wheat imports there. Randy Suess, a wheat farmer from Colfax, WA, and chairman of U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) said, “The tariff situation has basically forced our largest customer, historically, in South America to buy more wheat from Canada and Argentina. Now our customers in Colombia will not have to pay the tariff and we can compete equally on the basis of quality, supply and service.”
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Proposed Changes to U.S. Grain Standards
May 7
USDA’s Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) proposed changes to the U.S. Grain Standards, specifically to the definitions of “Contrasting Classes” and “Shrunken and Broken Kernels in a Federal Register announcement April 11, 2012. USW and other industry stakeholders submitted comments on the standards during FGIS’s periodic review beginning in November 2009. The proposed changes affect hard white (HW) standards related to contrasting classes and to standards for shrunken and broken kernels.
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