Posted on 04/23/2003 9:32:47 PM PDT by Clive
CANBERRA — Australia, keen to protect its commercial interest in one of its largest wheat markets, will send a team of agricultural experts to work with Iraqi officials and a senior US nominee to rebuild Iraq’s agriculture sector.
The Australian team will be led by Trevor Flugge, the former high-profile chairman of Australia’s monopoly wheat exporter AWB Ltd, and advise on agriculture reforms and food security issues, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said this week.
“Mr Flugge will make an early visit to the region to assess conditions on the ground and to identify immediate priorities for Australian assistance,” Downer said in a statement.
Australia, which sent 2,000 military personnel to join the US-led attack on Iraq, sells up to two million tonnes of wheat a year worth about A$800 million (US$490 million) to Iraq under the United Nations oil-for-food programme.
With war now winding down, farmers in key rural exporting nations, such as Australia and the United States, are lobbying for a slice of the Iraqi market.
US agriculture wants to recapture some of the market it lost in Iraq. From 1989 to 1991, Iraq imported one million tonnes of wheat a year from the United States and was also a top market for US rice. It has not bought sizeable quantities of wheat from the United States since 1991, the year of the Gulf War.
The US Agriculture Department this week announced that Dan Amstutz, a former US agriculture industry official and trade negotiator, would head Bush administration efforts for agricultural reconstruction in Iraq.
Downer said Australia was well-placed to help revitalise Iraqi agriculture, particularly in areas such as dry land agriculture, grain distribution, irrigation and combating salinity problems.
He said getting the sector running efficiently after years of mismanagement and neglect was vital, with much of the population now dependent on food handouts.
“Rehabilitation of agriculture will be critical to Iraq’s stability and long-term economic recovery,” Downer said.
— Reuter
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