U.S. CORN GROWERS BLAST CANADA CORN RULING Canada's ruling in favor of a duty on U.S. corn was a keen disappointment to the National Corn Growers Association and has set a dangerous precedent for other nations to follow, said Mike Hall, lobbyist for the association. "The French corn growers will clearly charge ahead now and just change corn to corn gluten feed" in their complaint, Hall told Reuters. A Canadian government agency ruled today that U.S. farm policies are causing injury to Canadian corn farrmers and supported an earlier imposed countervailing duty of about 85 cts per bushel. "This was cleary a political decision," Hall said. "The amount of corn we export to Canada is insignificant." The unexpected ruling appeared to be based on the agrument that Canada bases its corn prices on U.S. futures prices and that American farm policy has driven down these prices, thus causing lower prices to Canadian farmers and larger government payments through its farm stabilization program, Hall said. Hall said this is a new definition for injury, but that other nations might also now apply this same argument to attack U.S. farm programs. The French corn growers could now charge that U.S. farm programs create an unfair subsidy for corn gluten feed, Hall said. The French have long wanted to control the imports of U.S. corn gluten feed into the community, saying that the imported feed was unfairly displacing European grain.