The prestigious Wall Street Journal is today carrying an opinion piece on U.S. dairy export subsidies, written by Federated Farmers President, Don Nicolson. The piece is appropriately entitled, Milking Export Subsidies."While the extension of U.S. export subsidies was an unwelcome shock generating many column inches both here and in Australia, we were effectively only talking to ourselves," said Don Nicolson, Fed Farmers, speaking from Indonesia where he's attending the Cairns Group meeting of agricultural exporting nations. "I felt we had to take our compelling message that we farm without subsidy and on our own two feet, direct to the USA and the international business community. "Writing a letter to President Barack Obama was one thing. Getting wider attention on this most important issue is another."That's why the Wall Street Journal was the logical choice. It's the trade paper of American commerce and one of the most respected newspapers in the world. It has genuine gravitas with U.S. policy makers. "It's an honour and a bit of a coup really that Fed Farmers has had such a topical piece accepted. The timing is ideal, given it coincides with the Cairns Group meeting being attended by U.S. trade representative, Ron Kirk and the WTO's Director-General, Pascal Lamy. "NZ and its farmers are up against a powerful U.S. dairy lobby that's only interested in keeping its subsidies. Hopefully this opinion piece will give U.S. policy makers time to pause, think and reconsider what folly it really is. "Given President Obama was elected on a platform of change, we hope that following our recent letter to him, he'll now read in the Wall Street Journal compelling arguments for ending subsidies and protectionism.
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