NCBA Opposes Government Intrusion in the Marketplace
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) is urging the Senate to oppose an amendment by Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to the fiscal 2010 Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations bill that would require the Department of Justice (DoJ) to expand oversight efforts of competition within the agriculture industry.
"DoJ already has ample authority to investigate antitrust violations in the agriculture sector," said Colin Woodall, NCBA executive director of legislative affairs. "Expanding these efforts would be a purely political move to redirect their resource-allocation choices. Asymmetric price transmission in agriculture has already undergone thorough review in the private sector; there is no need for a taxpayer-funded version."
NCBA is also opposed to language in the amendments that calls for DoJ to place "an emphasis on asymmetric price transmission from the retail to farm level." When DoJ enforces antitrust law in the agriculture business, it should do so according to antitrust doctrine in its entirety; it is inappropriate to place greater emphasis on any one factor than called for under the law.