U.S. SENATORS SEEK TO EXPAND USDA EXPORT BONUS
Leading U.S. farm state senators are
seeking to insert into the Senate's omnibus trade bill a
provision that would broaden eligibility requirements under the
U.S. Agriculture Department's export enhancement program, EEP,
to include traditional buyers of U.S. farm products, including
the Soviet Union, Senate staff said.
    Under existing criteria, USDA can offer EEP subsidies to
recoup export markets lost to competing nations' unfair trading
practices.
    Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)
is leading a group of farm state senators in an effort to
broaden the criteria in such a way as to enable Moscow to be
eligible for the subsidies, sources said.
    The senators -- including Senate Finance Committee Chairman
Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.), Max Baucus (D-Mont.), David Pryor
(D-Ark.), John Melcher (D-Mont.) and Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) --
also may fold into the trade bill a measure to shield pork
producers and processors from Canadian imports.
    The measure, sponsored by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa),
would clarify the definition of "industry" in determining whether
or not imports were causing injury to U.S. producers.
    Grassley's bill stems from a 1985 decision by the
International Trade Commission that imports from Canada of live
swine -- but not fresh, chilled and frozen pork -- were harming
U.S. producers.
    The bill's proponents have argued Canada has simply
replaced shipments of live hogs with fresh pork.
 Reuter
