Clinton Backs Wheat Legislation President Wants Export Credits To Be Exempted From Sanctions

President Clinton is endorsing legislation to ensure that Pakistan continues to get wheat credits despite its nuclear tests, but House Republicans on Friday slammed the president for not simply declaring the credits as exempt from sanctions.

In a written statement, Clinton said the measure is necessary to ensure Pakistan keeps its place as America’s third-ranking wheat customer and the most important destination for a type of white wheat grown in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Michigan.

“In implementing sanctions against India and Pakistan, we are trying, whenever possible, to minimize the humanitarian impact on the people of those countries,” Clinton said in a statement released Friday. “We have long believed that food should not be used as a weapon to influence other nations.”

Clinton’s announcement, coinciding with his weekend trip to the Pacific coast, brought criticism from Republican Rep. Bob Smith of Oregon, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.

Smith said Congress should not be forced to pass legislation to protect the wheat export credits program - known as GSM-102 - from nuclear test sanctions law that was written to exempt food and humanitarian aid. The Clinton administration should simply rule that the credits are exempt, he said.

The administration, however, has found the sanctions law appears to prevent use of the credits, which are essentially private transactions guaranteed by the U.S. government for certain commodities. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said Thursday the law was ambiguous enough to require a legislative fix.

Pakistan last year imported 2.2 million metric tons of U.S. wheat and bought 37 percent of the wheat grown in the Pacific Northwest. U.S. Wheat Associates, an export group representing growers in 18 states, said Australia is already exploring ways of expanding its Pakistani sales to replace the United States.

“This is the most absurd thing we’ve ever seen,” said Bill Flory, president of the National Association of Wheat Growers and Idaho wheat farmer.

“We spend money to develop these markets and then we take ourselves out of it,” he said. “We’ve got to be a laughing stock. We’re handing our markets to our competition.”

The export credits legislation was attached to agriculture spending bills pending in the House and Senate.

It could be weeks before a final version of that appropriations bill is sent to the president.