A NAFTA panel has ordered the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) to reconsider duties on spring wheat imports from Canada.

"This is a clear win for the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB)," said Ken Ritter, chair of the CWB's farmer-controlled board of directors. "The NAFTA panel agreed with our arguments that these duties were not right."

In a ruling released today the panel gives the U.S. government department 90 days to come up with a new determination on countervailing duties related to CWB financial guarantees, which now account for 4.94 per cent of the overall 14.15-per-cent tariff on imports of Canadian hard red spring wheat to the United States.

Panellists decisively rejected the DOC's treatment of the three guarantees as a single program under the heading of "financial risk coverage" and is requiring each guarantee to be separately evaluated.

Ritter said the results could lead to complete removal of countervailing duties. At the same time, the CWB has appealed the overall tariff through a separate NAFTA panel, which held hearings in Washington on Mar. 9.

"We have always said that these tariffs are unjustified," Ritter said. "They resulted from misinformation and misapplication of the U.S. Department of Commerce's own regulations and practices. We won't quit fighting until they are completely removed."

The panel reaffirmed the DOC decision to assess a .35-per-cent duty resulting from government provision of railcars, an issue that the governments of Canada, Saskatchewan and Alberta had appealed. For the entire duty to be dismissed, the benefit calculated from all alleged subsidies must be less than one per cent.

Controlled by western Canadian farmers, the CWB is the largest wheat and barley marketer in the world. As one of Canada's biggest exporters, the Winnipeg-based company sells grain to more than 70 countries and returns all sales revenue, less marketing costs, to Prairie farmers.