Bill Huffman
Director - Government Relations

The Friday Report

April 10, 2009

Congress is on a two-week recess for the Easter holiday.

Obama Nominees Confirmed

Three of President Obama’s nominees for key USDA posts have been confirmed by the U.S. Senate. They include Kathleen A. Merrigan to be Deputy Secretary, James W. Miller to be Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, and Joe Leonard Jr., to be Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. 

Merrigan will serve as second in command at USDA.  She is a former Administrator of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service and a former staff member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Most recently, she has been a professor at Tufts University. She is reportedly a big advocate of organic farming, family farms, conservation and nutrition programs.

Miller formerly was Chief of Staff for the National Farmers’ Union and has been their chief economist. He is a former wheat farmer from the State of Washington and is highly regarded by most major commodity groups.

U.S. Trade Representative Names Key Staff

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk has named several key members to his staff, some of whom we are familiar with and have previously worked with on trade related matters. One of those is Daniel Sepulveda, who formerly was a trade specialist in President Obama’s Senate office and previously served as trade specialist for Senator Barbara Boxer of California. Danny spent an afternoon with FRC a couple of years ago studying some of the trade issues facing the rice industry and we gave him a tour of our mill and a field tour in the Natomas basin. He will be assistant trade representative for Congressional affairs. Another key appointment is Demetrios J. Marantis as Chief Agriculture Trade Negotiator. He was nominated for the position by President Obama. Demetrios formerly was International Trade Counsel to the Senate Finance Committee and Senator Max Baucus, D-Montana.  FRC previously worked with Demetrios on trade matters involving Russia and their tariffs on California specialty rice imported from a major FRC customer.

It appears to us that very knowledgeable well qualified people have been named to key positions at USTR, which should be helpful to the U.S. rice industry.

Taiwan Again Rejects Rice Bids

Taiwan has again rejected all bids for California rice in their tender for 10,000 metric tons of medium grain milled rice and 15,000 metric tons of medium grain brown rice. Taiwanese officials said all bids were above the Taiwan ceiling price. The standoff with Taiwan continues!  That country has yet to import any U.S. rice this year and is well behind in the commitment in their trade agreement to import over 94,000 metric tons of rice on an annual basis. Taiwan is about 180,000 metric tons in arrears in importing California rice.

The California rice industry is trying to resolve the standoff through political pressure and through a trade complaint thru the U.S. Trade Representative’s office.

Easter

The Board of Directors and staff of Farmers’ Rice Cooperative wish you and your family a pleasant, safe and rewarding Easter!