Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (July 27, 2018)
8 CapitalPress.com July 27, 2018 U.S. tariffs poised to target Spanish olives Government agencies conclude unfair dumping on U.S. market By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press The U.S. government is poised to impose tariffs on ripe olives from Spain after finding they’ve been dumped on the U.S. market and harmed domestic producers. Last year, two federal agencies began an anti-dump- ing investigation into Spanish ripe table olives at the behest of two California companies, Bell-Carter Foods and Musco Family Olive Co. The U.S. International Trade Commission has now concluded that imports of Spanish olives have “mate- rially injured” domestic pro- ducers after the U.S. Com- Capital Press File The U.S. Department of Commerce has found that Spanish olives are being dumped on the U.S. market. merce Department earlier found they’re being dumped at less than fair value in the U.S. Those two determinations mean that federal “counter- vailing and antidumping duty orders” can now be imposed. According to the California olive producers, the very exis- tence of the domestic industry is being threatened by a flood of Spanish olives. “U.S. domestic processors invented the ripe olive prod- uct but without relief from un- fairly traded imports, the U.S. industry will disappear,” they said in a petition urging gov- ernment action. Over the past five years, the volume of Spanish ripe olives shipped to the U.S. has surged more than 50 percent, to 58,000 tons, at a price that’s 40 percent lower than the domes- tic product, the petition said. Bell-Carter and Musco said they’re caught in a “Catch-22” situation because they can’t re- main competitive while raising consumer prices, but they also can’t reduce prices to farmers without having them remove olive trees. “This problem will only get worse; as subject imports continue to depress grower margins, U.S. growers will have no choice but to continue pulling acreage from olive pro- duction, thereby further reduc- ing U.S. supply to domestic processors,” according to the companies. Acreage in California, where most olives are grown, has contracted by roughly one- fourth since 2013 as farmers switch to higher-value crops like almonds, the petition said. “Time is running out for the domestic ripe olive industry,” according to Bell-Carter and Musco. The U.S. Commerce De- partment has found that the Spanish government is pro- viding subsidies to olive pro- ducers that amount to 7 to 27 percent of their value. Such practices have al- lowed Spanish producers to sell their olives in the U.S. at 17 percent to 25 percent below fair market value, with total sales hitting $67.6 million last year. The U.S. Commerce De- partment notes that “enforce- ment of U.S. trade law is a prime focus of the Trump Administration,” which has opened 118 anti-dumping in- vestigations so far, an increase of nearly 60 percent compared to the same time during the Obama administration. No clue to why cougar killed Washington cyclist Necropsy finds nothing unusual By DON JENKINS Capital Press The cougar that killed a cy- clist in Western Washington wasn’t suffering any physical abnormality that might explain the rare attack, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. The 104-pound, 3-year-old male was lean, but had an ad- equate amount of body fat and wasn’t suffering from a virus, brain disease or poisoning, according to the department. Wildlife veterinarian Kris- tin Mansfield said explaining the animal’s unusual behavior would be speculation. “It’s possible the person was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Cats hunt. It can happen. Thankfully, it’s very rare,” she said. The cougar attacked Seattle residents Isaac Sederbaum, 31, and S.J. Brooks, 32, on May 19 near North Bend east of Seattle in the Cascade foothills. Seder- baum was seriously injured, and Brooks was killed. Brooks was the first person killed by a cougar since 1924, according to Fish and Wildlife. Some 18 oth- er people had survived cougar attacks. The cougar tested negative- ly for viruses such as rabies and canine distemper, and the presence of toxic elements such as lead and mercury. An exam- ination of the brain revealed no diseases or signs of chronic stress, according to a necropsy report and laboratory results. Fish and Wildlife officers responding to the attack chased and shot a cougar, which died of two gunshot wounds. Officers are confident that they shot the cougar that at- tacked the cyclists. The depart- ment is awaiting the results of DNA analysis for conforma- tion. The results are expected Rich Beausoleil/Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife with the next month, Mansfield A cougar stares down from a tree in Washington. State wildlife managers say a necropsy didn’t find any abnormalities to explain why a cougar attacked two cyclists in May, killing one. said. Japan re-opens to U.S. sheep and goat meat Prohibition was imposed after 2003 BSE discovery By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Marketers plan to reintro- duce U.S. lamb and goat meat to Japanese consumers after an absence from that market of nearly 15 years. Japan stopped accepting meat from U.S. cattle and oth- er ruminants, including sheep and goats, in late 2003 after the discovery of bovine spon- 30-4/106 3995 Brooklake Rd. NE • Brooks, OR 97303 Vintage & Antique Tractors Parades & Tractor Pulls Swap Me et & Quilt Show 15 VIntage machinery & Implement Museums Great Food & Family Fun! Kids 12 & under FREE! $12.00 General Admission www.PowerlandHeritagePark.com giform encephalopathy — a neurological disease — in a Washington dairy cow. The prohibition was re- cently lifted, allowing U.S. producers to compete with Australia and New Zealand in Japan, which last year import- ed $169 million of sheep and goat meat from those coun- tries. “Even 10 to 15 percent of that market would be mil- lions of dollars,” said Peter Orwick, executive director of the American Sheep Industry Association. Australia and New Zea- land will likely remain the major exporters of sheep and goat meat to Japan but the market’s re-opening will have an impact on the U.S. indus- try, particularly with “high- er-end” cuts such as the rack of lamb, he said. “This is like newfound customers for companies of ours that want to pursue it,” Orwick said. Even without the Japa- nese market, U.S. exporters of sheep and goat meat have made major strides over the past decade and a half — ship- ments to other countries have more than doubled from $7 million to $15 million in that time, according to USDA. Meanwhile, Japan’s con- sumption of imported sheep and goat meat has also grown from less than $90 million to nearly $170 million a year. The U.S. Meat Export Federation plans to conduct educational seminars for Jap- anese chefs and distributors to remind them of the unique texture and flavor of U.S. lamb, said Joe Schuele, its communications director. Unlike sheep from Austra- lia and New Zealand, which are generally grass fed, those from the U.S. are finished on a diet of grains that imparts juiciness to the meat, he said. Grain-finished beef is already popular in Japan. “It’s a concept that Japa- nese consumers are familiar with and which they’ve shown an appetite for,” Schuele said. Japan has specific require- ments for meat imports that can be found on the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service website, but U.S. pro- cessors are familiar with those requirements and well-pre- pared to meet them, he said. “I think everyone in the supply chain will benefit from it,” Schuele said. With Japan now re-opened to U.S. sheep and goat meat, hopefully trade negotiators can now focus on re-opening other markets to those prod- ucts, including South Korea and countries in South Amer- ica, he said. Lifting the ban on U.S. beef in Japan was the top priority of USDA negotiators while the prohibition on sheep and goat meat probably took longer to unwind because it was tangled up with other trade issues, said Orwick. “A lot of those trade issues don’t have anything to do with your particular commod- ity,” he said. Report raps two Thurston Conservation District supervisors By DON JENKINS Capital Press Two Western Washing- ton farmers say they will defend themselves against claims that they have damaged the Thur- ston Con- servation District’s fi- nances and reputation Eric and should Johnson be removed from the d i s t r i c t ’s board of su- pervisors. E r i c Johnson and Richard Richard Mankamy- Mankamyer er are ac- cused in a report released Friday by State Conservation Com- mission staff of sowing dissension and violating district policies. The re- port recommends that state conservation commission- ers pursue expelling them from the board. “When we go to a pub- lic hearing, I think a lot of information will come out. I don’t think it will change the outcome. There will be a removal of supervisors, but people will know how the money is spent,” John- son said. The Thurston district has been embroiled in a long-running, multi-facet- ed dispute over its opera- tions. The state commis- sion started investigating supervisors in November in response to complaints by another supervisor, Sa- mantha Fleischner, who was since left the board. The wide-ranging re- port accused Johnson and Mankamyer of “neglect of duty” and “malfeasance,” while not finding grounds for accusing other past and present supervisors. The report noted tensions between staff and super- visors, but the state com- mission has authority to remove only supervisors. Johnson and Mankamy- er are both accused of hin- dering the district from paying its bills on time and of misconduct toward staff members. In interviews with the Capital Press, they disputed the claims and attributed conflicts to challenging district staff to justify expenses. “The more questions we ask, the more blow back we get,” Mankamy- er said. “I want my day in court. I want an unbiased investigation.” Johnson and Mankamy- er have 30 days to reply in writing to the allegations. The commission will then decide whether to hold a hearing within 60 days. The complaints in- clude an episode in which Johnson allegedly dodged a meeting in November, causing the board to lack a quorum and miss a dead- line to refile a budget with the county to continue col- lecting a parcel tax that brought in about $600,000 a year. Mankamyer was “up- front” about not being able to participate in the meeting, but Johnson, “by all accounts,” could have joined the meeting by phone from Yakima, where he was attending a dairy conference, according to the report. Johnson said he sup- ported continuing to col- lect the tax, but didn’t have time for a meeting that day. The staff should have planned better to meet the deadline, he said. Conservation Commis- sion policy director Ron Shultz said the loss of revenue could jeopardize a plan to implement vol- untary conservation mea- sures on Thurston County farms.
