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CapitalPress.com
February 9, 2018
Wheat industry weighs next moves on TPP
Potential harm of
withdrawal now a
‘looming reality’
for farmers
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Wheat industry representatives
planned to consider their options
this week in Washington, D.C.,
after the remaining 11 countries in
the Trans-Pacific Partnership de-
cided to move ahead without the
U.S.
The move could cost U.S. wheat
growers hundreds of millions of
dollars in lost sales annually in the
years ahead.
Glen Squires, CEO of the Wash-
ington Grain Commission, said
he expected the trade deal would
“clearly be a topic” at the annual
winter meetings for the National
Association of Wheat Growers and
U.S. Wheat Associates.
NAWG’s National Wheat Foun-
dation planned to hold an educa-
tional event Feb. 8 on Capitol Hill.
Wheat industry representatives were
to speak with members of Congress
about the “absolute importance” of
the Japan and Vietnam markets, and
all of the others involved in the trade
deal, Squires said.
President Donald Trump with-
drew from the TPP in January 2017,
Capital Press File
Wheat grows in June. Members of the wheat industry were to meet in Wash-
ington, D.C., this week to discuss their options in light of the Trans-Pacific
Partnership continuing without the U.S. The move could cost U.S. wheat
farmers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales each year.
saying he believed U.S. manufac-
turers were short-changed in the
deal. Representatives of U.S. agri-
culture felt TPP was a good deal for
them and offered better access and
lower tariffs in Asian and other Pa-
cific Rim markets.
Trump recently said he would
consider re-entering TPP if it rep-
resented a better deal for the U.S.,
according to The Associated Press.
Squires hopes that’s a recognition of
the value of the trade relationships
with countries in the TPP.
In addition to Japan and Viet-
nam, Australia, Canada, Mexico,
Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand,
Peru, Singapore and Brunei are par-
ties to TPP.
Steve Mercer, U.S. Wheat vice
president of communications, said
continuation of the deal showed that
“decisions have consequences.”
“The potential harm that we saw
when withdrawal was announced
a year ago is now really a looming
reality for wheat farmers,” Mercer
said.
Mexico, a member of TPP,
was the largest customer for U.S.
wheat farmers last year.
Japan has consistently been
the largest and most loyal buy-
er of the soft white, club wheat,
spring wheat and hard red win-
ter wheat primarily grown in the
Northwest, Mercer said.
Upwards of 90 percent of the
wheat grown in the Northwest is ex-
ported, most of it to Japan and other
Asian nations.
Sources in the Japanese mill-
ing industry estimate the situation
could eventually reduce U.S. wheat
import volumes by more than half,
representing a loss at the farm gate
of $450 million per year at current
prices, Mercer said.
“It may not diminish the amount
of soft white or Western white that
they import too much because they
can’t really get it from other plac-
es,” he said. “But the chilling effect
of that on prices in general is going
to affect every wheat farmer.”
Mercer said the industry will
push for renewed renegotiations on
a bilateral agreement with Japan,
and work with Japanese flour mill-
ers.
“The difference in cost to the
millers probably will overcome the
goodwill and loyalty that have been
built up over the years,” Mercer
said, noting the U.S. wheat industry
has worked for 70 years to develop
the Japanese market. “That’s a real
concern.”
U.S. Wheat will work to help
millers express their concerns to
the Japanese government, he said.
The discounting of effective
tariffs on Canadian and Austra-
lian wheat sold to Japan under the
new TPP deal would gradually be
applied over nine years. The effec-
tive tariff on U.S. wheat would not
change, Mercer said.
The
remaining
coun-
tries in TPP will sign it in
March.
“We won’t have a huge hit right
away, but it certainly will begin
having an impact,” Mercer said.
R-CALF CEO: Trump was right to withdraw from TPP
Bullard: Negotiate price
to support ranchers
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
While some industries worry about the
potential disadvantages of the remaining
countries in the Trans-Pacific Partnership
proceeding without the U.S., R-CALF USA
says President Donald Trump lived up to his
campaign promises when he withdrew from
the deal.
“It was the right thing to do when Presi-
dent Trump withdrew,” Bill Bullard, CEO
of the organization, which represents cattle
and sheep ranchers on domestic and inter-
national trade and marketing, told the Cap-
ital Press. “It’s the right thing for the Unit-
ed States to do today, and if other countries
want to continue to negotiate to cede their
sovereignty through this agreement, let them.
But the United States should not be party to
that.”
TPP was a global effort to create global
supply chains in the cattle industry, Bullard
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard says President
Donald Trump was right to withdraw from the
Trans-Pacific Partnership. R-CALF supports bilat-
eral agreements that will benefit U.S. ranchers and
correct existing imbalances, he says.
said, allowing multi-national meatpackers to
“seamlessly switch” from one country to an-
other to source their cattle and beef.
Bullard said the U.S. should be strength-
ening a domestic cattle supply chain instead of
pursuing a global supply chain. TPP did not rec-
ognize the U.S. beef produced exclusively in the
country, allowed imported beef to bear the U.S.
label and did not include safeguards for price or
import surges that could hurt domestic prices.
TPP is an agreement with some of the world’s
largest beef exporters, and represented more
beef production than consumption, Bullard said.
“The United States was the most likely market
where all of that excess beef was going to be tar-
geted to,” he said.
R-CALF supports bilateral agreements with
countries that represent important markets for the
U.S., and not an additional supply source for the
large meat packers. The U.S. is already “tremen-
dously disadvantaged” between Canada and
Mexico, Bullard said.
“They sell us 4 billion pounds worth of beef
and we turn around and sell them 2 billion
pounds of the same product, so that’s a terrible
imbalance that needs to be corrected,” he said.
“For that reason, we don’t think we should
jump in and become even more disadvantaged
under TPP.”
Bullard thinks claims that the U.S. will be
harmed without TPP are a “smokescreen” to
convince ranchers to stay the course and con-
tinue to support trade agreements that ultimate-
ly harm the industry by importing more than is
exported.
Mentorship to pair new, experienced farmers
Program to run March
through September
Online
http://bit.ly/2nyHK3r
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Farmers in Spokane and Lincoln
counties are invited to mentor as-
piring farmers as part of a unique
effort in Eastern Washington.
The mentors will help new
farmers learn the ropes of a suc-
cessful operation. The effort is
sponsored by Washington State
University’s Spokane County Ex-
tension and the Spokane Conser-
vation District.
“They can sit in class, push
papers and do internet research,
but when it comes down to the
nuts and bolts of really running
a farm, nothing beats getting out
Capital Press File
Beginning farmers will learn from
veteran farmers through mentorships
offered in Spokane and Lincoln
counties in Eastern Washington.
there with a good experienced
farmer and learning hands-on,”
said Pat Munts, Spokane County
Extension small farms and urban
agriculture coordinator. “It puts
everything they may have done
book learning on to the test and
they really can find out, ‘Hey, do I
really want to do this?’”
Spokane and Lincoln counties
are included in the state Depart-
ment of Labor and Industries farm
and internship program, Munts
said. Farmers must qualify for the
program, but are covered for L&I
issues, she said.
The program is open to anyone
seriously considering small-scale
agriculture.
Munts said the schedule will be
flexible. Farmers will set up a cur-
riculum, and Munts will monitor
teams in the field.
Farmers and mentors must go
through interviews.
“We’re looking for people who
have a lot of drive to do this,”
Munts said of intern candidates.
Munts hopes to have the pro-
gram started by end of March,
and it will run through the end of
September. She’d like to have 15
interns and 10 to 15 farmers par-
ticipating.
The program is a test run for
possible expansion of the Culti-
vating Success mentor-intern pro-
gram. It fell to the wayside during
the recession, but Munts hopes to
revive it and take it statewide.
The program uses funding
from a $37,000 grant from WSU’s
Western Extension Risk Manage-
ment Education Center.
Farmers receive a stipend for
mentoring, Munts said.
Contact Munts at 509-477-
2173 or pmunts@spokanecounty.
org
Dan Wheat/Capital Press File
The Brender Creek migrant farmworker
housing in Cashmere, Wash., shortly before
it opened in 2015.
Yakima looks
at fostering
farmworker
housing
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
YAKIMA, Wash. — The city of Yaki-
ma is considering a new zoning category
that would allow seasonal farmworker
housing within the city limits.
The city was approached by Borton
Fruit of Yakima, Valicoff Fruit Co. of
Wapato, the Martinez family and a hop
grower looking to build or convert hous-
ing for H-2A-visa foreign agricultural
guestworkers, said Joan Davenport, city
community development director.
The city hearing examiner held a pub-
lic hearing to receive testimony and de-
termined a new zoning category would be
needed, Davenport said.
Hearing Examiner Gary Cuillier asked
the city planning commission to draft a
proposed ordinance, hold a public hear-
ing and make a recommendation to the
city council.
The commission has held one focus
group and the whole process will take at
least a couple of months, Davenport said.
“Agriculture is huge in Yakima. There
has to be standards and criteria. It’s not a
quick process. We’re moving as quick as
we can,” she said.
Borton, Valicoff, Martinez and the hop
grower have all talked about buying and
converting hotels into H-2A housing or
building new facilities, Davenport said.
“The point is they all need housing.
We’re very supportive of converting un-
derused hotels into worker housing,” she
said.
H-2A housing would not be allowed
in most residential districts but more like-
ly in business or industrial districts, she
said.
While farmworkers live in single-fam-
ily residences there are no farmworker
apartments or high-density farmworker
dwellings in the city, Davenport said.
Yakima Housing Authority owns and
manages 173 units of agricultural rental
housing on 46 sites throughout Yakima
County but they are outside the city.
Borton and Valicoff could not be
reached for comment.
Heri Chapula, field services director
for WAFLA farm labor association, said
there are several small motels on North
First Street suitable for leasing or sale
that the companies would update to H-2A
standards.
“They could meet the need and turn
into a positive for the community, lift up
an area,” Chapula said.
The Martinez family, connected with
G&G Orchards, Cowiche, are the main
ones asking and probably need housing
for about 20 workers, he said.
Valicoff and Borton probably are each
looking more in the 50- to 100-bed range,
he said.
In general, small growers need H-2A
housing and can’t afford to build or buy
their own, he said.
WAFLA is not interested, at this time,
in buying or building H-2A housing in
Yakima, but is encouraging the compa-
nies to do so, Chapula said.
He said he and Mike Gempler, exec-
utive director of Washington Growers
League in Yakima, spoke in favor of a
farmworker housing zoning category at
the hearing examiner’s Jan. 24 meeting.
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