The Canadian Wheat Board and feed barley

We present arguments that the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Foundation in the United States has no basis for filing a countervail complaint against the Canadian cattle industry in which it alleges that Canadian cattle are being fed cheap barley because of alleged inefficiencies of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB). If there are inefficiencies in the Canadian grain marketing system, many are not attributable to the CWB. For example, elevation charges are set by grain companies, and not by the CWB. Furthermore, when the Export Enhancement Program (EEP) and other factors are taken into account, barley prices are not lower of Lethbridge, Alberta (a major cattle feeding region in Canada) than they are in comparable areas in the United States. In addition, with the removal of the Crow transportation subsidy there has been a dramatic change in the export and domestic pricing relationship for barley. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.