The good news came as the U.S. Trade Representative announced that neither dried flowers nor oats would be included on the list of products that will be subject to a 100 percent tariff in retaliation against the European Union for its ban on U.S. meat treated with hormones. Through personal meetings, telephone calls and letters, Grassley urged both the USTR and the Agriculture Department to recognize the negative consequences for Iowa of including dried flowers and oats in that effort.
In particular, Grassley sought to give a voice in Washington to a small business in Des Moines - Verdissimo USA - that depends on $1 million worth of dried, preserved flowers each year from a company in France. If the tariff had been doubled on these imported flowers, the small company in Des Moines would have been put out of business.
"When I contacted the trade representative's office, it was clear that the effect of this embargo on very small businesses wasn't on the administration's radar screen. My goal was to make sure that this small-business owner had the opportunity to be heard in the decision-making process in Washington," Grassley said.
In addition, Grassley asked to have oats removed from the list of products because The Quaker Oats Company in Cedar Rapids depends on a large supply of oats from the EU. Keeping oats on the beef hormone retaliation list potentially would have raised food costs to U.S. consumers. About 1200 Iowans work at Quaker Oats in Cedar Rapids.
"Putting oats on the retaliation list would have given Canada a virtual monopoly on high- quality oats and, in turn, the ability to bid up the price of oats," Grassley said. Over the last 30 years, U.S. oat acreage has dropped by more than 80 percent, as other crops promised higher returns and greater yield. Nearly all U.S. oat imports, including a large proportion of those used for cereals, come from Canada, Sweden and Finland.
Grassley said today that it is critically important that the United States respond to the EU's ban on hormone-treated beef and that retaliatory steps are necessary in certain circumstances to maintain the integrity of international trading rules. "My message to the USTR was to come up with a final list that does not inflict the kind of damage on U.S. markets and companies that would have resulted from the proposed sanctions on oats and dried flowers," he said. Grassley is chairman of the Senate International Trade Subcommittee.