Fed: Aust will face competition in Iraq wheat market: US
By Shane Wright
CANBERRA, April 11 AAP - Australia had to resign itself to competition for the Iraqiwheat market, American wheat farmers said today.
Alan Tracy, from the American wheat lobby group US Wheat Associates, said it appearedAustralia was trying to shut America out of the Iraqi market.
It follows comments by Agriculture Minister Warren Truss earlier this week, in whichhe warned the US against trying to use aid to block Australian access to Iraq.
Australia this week on-sold 100,000 tonnes of wheat to the World Food Program, insteadof donating it directly to Iraq to meet humanitarian needs.
Mr Tracy said it appeared Mr Truss was opposed to free and open trade for the Iraqmarket which in recent years has taken two million tonnes of Australian wheat.
He said the war on Iraq was an attempt to bring freedom to the country, and that includedfreedom to buy wheat from any country.
"US, British and Australian men and women are fighting shoulder-to-shoulder in Iraqtoday, in order to remove a dictatorship and, hopefully, allow freedom to take hold andflourish," he told AAP.
"Freedom means, among other things, the ability to develop a vibrant market economy.
In today's world, that means the freedom to buy the best wheat, for the best price,regardless of political pressures or deals made by governments or government sponsoredmonopolies."
Australia's ministerial counsellor for agriculture in the US embassy, Fran Freeman,wrote to the US Wheat Associates this week explaining Australia's position on the Iraqiwheat market.
But it has failed to allay the organisation's concerns over the market which is expectedto grow to be up to six million tonnes in size.
Mr Tracy said the government's handling of the wheat shipment to Iraq this week stillupset American farmers.
"The honourable Australian minister has no room to complain about our open and transparentdonations after the Australians reneged on its food aid donation," he said.
"The American wheat farmer is proud that American wheat is saving lives around theworld, and we are especially proud that the US government makes, and keeps, its commitmentsto the World Food Program and other humanitarian organisations."
As recently as 1997, the US exported more than 700,000 tonnes of wheat to the Iraq.
Mr Tracy said the Iraqi wheat market was not solely owned by Australia's monopoly wheatexporter, AWB Ltd.
AAP sw/sb/cjh/bwl
KEYWORD: IRAQ AUST WHEAT
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