WINNIPEG, Aug 30: The Canadian government said on Friday it does not dump or subsidize wheat exports through the Canadian Wheat Board and may consider a trade challenge of US Commerce Department duties.

The duties have shut out Canadian wheat exports since March, and will now rise to a total of 14.16 per cent for wheat and 13.55 per cent for durum, up from earlier totals of 10.06 per cent on wheat and 12 per cent on durum.

We will be considering as a government all the means that may be available to us to fight this decision, said Ralph Goodale, the cabinet minister responsible for the wheat board.

This is the tenth US probe since 1987 of the trade practices of the Canadian Wheat Board, which has a monopoly on wheat exports from the Prairie region. But it is the first time the United States has applied duties to imports.

For the duties to stick, the US International Trade Commission must find that farmers have been injured by CWB trade practices. The ruling is expected Oct. 13.

Canada typically ships about 1.6 million tons of wheat and durum to the United States annually, representing about 3 per cent of US wheat consumption and up to 20 per cent of durum use, the CWB said.—Reuters