Major dump coming:
CANBERRA (Dow Jones)--Australian agribusiness AWB Ltd. (AWB.AU) will lose a veto over bulk wheat exports by others in a restructuring of the trade to be unveiled Tuesday, the Australian Financial Review newspaper reports Monday.
The Wheat Export Authority, or another concern, will be given the power to open the wheat export market to other grain companies, the report says.
Junior governing coalition partner the Nationals also warned that consumers might be forced to pay a levy on bread to cushion the impact on small growers of a multibillion restructuring of the wheat industry, the report says.
A report tabled in parliament a week ago and prepared by former state judge Terence Cole found kickbacks of US$221.7 million paid by AWB to Saddam Hussein's former regime during a U.N. oil-for-food program might have broken Australian law.
"Given the Cole inquiry and everything that surrounds it, the status quo can't remain," Prime Minister John Howard said after the report was issued last week.
Newspaper Web site: http://www.afr.com
-By Canberra bureau; 61-2-8235-2950; [email protected]
-Edited by Paul Godby
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