Senators Work to Keep Competition in Agriculture
USAgNet - 07/11/2007
Senators Chuck Grassley, Herb Kohl and John Thune introduced legislation to ensure a level playing field for all market participants in the agriculture industry, including the independent producer and family farmer.
"With the number of anti-competitive mergers that the Justice Department has approved, it's very clear they haven't figured out that we've got a problem. This lack of enforcement leads me to believe that not only do our antitrust regulators need more resources, we also need to beef up our laws to address vertical integration and concentration. Family farmers and small producers deserve a fighting chance in the marketplace," Grassley said.
"Concentration in the agriculture industry compromises competition, raises costs for consumers and tips the scale against our small and mid-size farms. This bill will result in greater scrutiny of agriculture mergers, stepping up the enforcement of laws already on the books (COOL) and giving the Justice Department and the FTC new tools to maintain competition in our agriculture economy," Kohl said.
"Increased concentration in the livestock and other sectors of agriculture is adversely impacting independent producers," said Thune. "It is past time to update our antitrust laws to address this problem. It is also critical that the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Justice coordinate their efforts and share their expertise and data when scrutinizing the growing number of agribusiness mergers. Steadily increasing levels of market concentration and an alarming number of agribusiness mergers in recent years make these steps necessary."
Their bill creates an Agriculture Competition Task Force to assist The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission in drafting agriculture antitrust guidelines, examine problems in agriculture competition, and coordinate activities to address anti-competitive practices. The Task Force will be made up of representatives of the agriculture industry, state departments of agriculture, state attorneys general, farmers, ranchers and independent producers, as well as agriculture law and economics experts, the Department of Agriculture, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission.
It also requires the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to conduct a post merger review of certain agribusiness mergers (mergers that submitted second requests for information) five years after they’ve been approved. (TYSON/IBP?)