Looks like the Wheat Farmers from the US are taking up a Class Action against AWB.
This Friday, the final report of the Cole inquiry into the AWB's $300 million in alleged kickbacks to Saddam Hussein will be dropped on John Howard's desk. While key players in the scandal will be hoping to avoid prosecution, in the US, angry farmers and lawyers are busily preparing a class action against the AWB. If successful, it would make the $300 million involved in the Iraqi kickbacks look like small change. Here is Bronwyn Ad?ock.
REPORTER: Bronwyn Ad?ock Here in Southern Virginia lie some of the best wheat farms in the United States. John Boyd is the fourth generation in his family to be farming here, on land that was originally purchased by his great grandfather.
JOHN BOYD, WHEAT FARMER: He bought this farm on the brink of the Civil War, when, you know, when blacks were able to stay on the farm. But these are soy beans and, as you can see, they're beginning to fill out. And, once we harvest these, we would then come immediately behind with wheat.
Even with subsidies, he needs good international sales for his wheat to make a decent living. But he says for years the Australian Wheat Board locked him and other farmers out of key export markets.
JOHN BOYD: Well, here again, we lost a lot of money by not being able to participate in those Iraq farm contracts and other related countries.
REPORTER: So did you actually try and get in Iraq?
JOHN BOYD: Absolutely. Absolutely, we tried. And, you know, like I said, the AWB has such a hold on this thing, I don't think a lot of people know how much power that they use you know, to keep the US farmer out of those contracts.
REPORTER: So you're getting it ready for harvest time?
JOHN BOYD: Yeah, we're going to get out here and do a little work today and hooking it up now.
Unlike the single desk system in Australia where the AWB exports on behalf of all wheat farmers, John Boyd sells through a co-op system, made up of just 30 local farmers. And after the Oil for Food and Cole Commission revelations he's now convinced his co-op was locked out of Iraq by AWB's alleged bribes.
JOHN BOYD: I don't mind any company or co-op being successful, but I don't think it's right when you do things underhanded and cut out small co-ops like mine and others here in the US that was trying to get some of that business fairly and equitable.
John Boyd is no stranger to activism. He's already taken on the US Government in court over discrimination against black farmers in the farm subsidy program.
JOHN BOYD: In my personal philosophy, sometimes things get to that point to where if you want to get some results sometimes you have to take it to a court.
He's now a plaintiff in a class action against the AWB. In Washington DC, lawyer L Palmer Foret has taken up the case.
L PALMER FORET, LAWYER: The case is very simply this - that the AWB paid the Hussein government US$220 million or more, which allowed the AWB to have the exclusive marketing rights for the sale of wheat under the UN Oil for Food program to Iraq. As a result of that, other countries, farmers in other countries, and in this case US farmers, were, in effect, prohibited. They were not able to participate in this Iraqi market.
The class action is going for financial compensation to make up for those lost sales. L Palmer Foret won't put a dollar figure on their claim yet, but points out the Iraqi market was worth billions.
L PALMER FORET: The reality of the situation is the US had participated in the Iraqi market before, and I think participated, we're still uncovering this, I think had participated in sales to Iraq through the UN program up until the late '90s. But then when the real bribery - or the real bribes - kicked in, everyone was excluded except for the AWB.
Australian experts challenge this claim, saying that US Government sanctions against trading with Iraq throughout the 1990s were what really hindered American farmers.
MALCOLM BARTHOLOMAEUS, GRAIN MARKET ANALYST: America certainly has lost market share. It's not through the actions of the AWB or the Food for Oil campaign. It was really as a consequence of political decisions and economic sanctions that were brought in by the Americans...
Grains market analysts Malcolm Batholomeaus also says Australian wheat has a natural advantage.
MALCOLM BARTHOLOMAEUS: And it is a preferred wheat from a quality perspective and its performance for a lot of products that are made for the consumers in Iraq. So even in a level playing field market, if that's what we want to call it, there would still be good strong ongoing demand for Australian wheat over and above any wheat that they may import from America.
When the class action was filed in Washington DC a few months ago the Australian wheat industry was furious. The case has since been voluntarily withdrawn. But in the last week, Australian wheat industry figures have been telling 'Dateline' it was thrown out of court for lack of evidence. L Palmer Foret says this is nonsense. He withdrew it before any hearings to finalise a few more details, and he'll be refiling soon.
L PALMER FORET: It seems to me the Cole Commission is doing an excellent job and is uncovering what needs to be uncovered.
In his case, L Palmer Foret will be using a law called RICO, first used to track down the Mafia. He's alleging AWB also used similar tactics in Indonesia, Pakistan and Yemen.
REPORTER: It sounds like though the information you have on the other countries, Pakistan, Yemen and Indonesia, is quite speculative at this stage?
L PALMER FORET: I wouldn't call it speculative, but it's certainly in the early stages.
The AWB would not be interviewed, but said that any court action is ill-conceived and will be vigorously defended. Back on the farm, John Boyd is optimistic that the woes of the AWB could mean more exports for him this year, and is planting extra wheat. There's more at stake here then just a court case, though - it's yet another chapter in a long-running bitter trade war between the highly subsidised American farmers and the market might of the AWB's single desk system.
REPORTER: How much of this is about actually getting recompense for what you say you lost financially, versus trying to break down the AWB system?
JOHN BOYD: I would say we are certainly after getting some of the losses that were done, but we are also after a fair playing field in the long run. We want to compete on an international basis on the long run. That's certainly what I would like to see happen, too.
Reporter/Camera: BRONWYN AD?OCK
Editor: ROWAN TUCKER-EVANS
Executive Producer: MIKE CAREY
Cheers
markco2
AWB Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Not Held
