CWB Follows Judge into NAFTA Quagmire
(March 30, 2004 - FFJ) In Regina v. Boyd Charles et al (Feb.26/2004),
regarding farmer grain exporting, Saskatchewan Queen's Bench Chief
Justice declared that the Canadian Wheat Board buy-backs are an export
tax mandated by the CWB Act.
He states:
"....there is contained in subsection 46(d) [of the
CWB
Act] the particular direction to recover a sum.....based on the
price
inside and outside Canada. ...The Canadian Wheat Board chooses to carry
out this mandate through the buy-back process."
He further states that the export tax required by section 46 only
applies for exports and not for domestic sales.
"However, by earmarking the buy-backs as an export only tax, Judge
Gerein unwittingly places the CWB squarely in violation of Article 314
of NAFTA that prohibits any 'duty, tax or other charge' that does not
also equally apply domestically.." claims John Husband, an organic
farmer at Wawota, Saskatchewan. "But what is amazing is that the CWB
has endorsed this flawed ruling."
"This is a reversal of what the CWB said in 1996 when they stated that
the buy-back is not a tax or duty." notes Husband, "They were right
then, because the buy-backs are nothing more than the regular buying
and selling by the CWB and legal changes of ownership are not
taxation, even if there are costs to the individual."
"The CWB should have known better than to affirm this ruling, but
mistakes are nothing new for the CWB. They have already had to change
their position, both publicly and to Parliament's Standing Committee on
Agriculture, when they had falsely insisted that they couldn't let
organic grain out of the monopoly without a change in the Act. The
same part of the legislation has led them into this new mess."
"Their problem is that they are trying to force a monopoly in only one
region of Canada using national legislation that had a different
purpose when it was written in 1947. The stated object in 1947 was to
establish a government set price in Canada that was independent of
world prices, enforced by export and import taxing with the tax
proceeds to go to the government. Something NAFTA now forbids."
"Since section 61.1 of the CWB Act specifically requires the CWB to
comply with NAFTA, the CWB has no choice but to reject the buy-backs as
the export tax mandated in section 46(d)." concludes Husband
For further information contact: John Husband 306-739-2900
OSPG is a voluntary, and totally self-funded association of organic
grain producers from all regions of the Prairie designated area with
the goal of marketing choice for farmers.
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