US says it has no plans to end Soviet grain curb

August 21, 1980

The US grain embargo is working and there are no plans to drop it "without the proper Soviet Response," Agriculture Secretary Bob Bergland told the Senate Banking Committee Wednesday. The committee is considering legislation to rescind the embargo imposed by President Carter in retaliation for the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. Mr. Bergland insisted that lifting the embargo would not improve conditions in US agriculture, and might, in fact, boost world demand for feed grains, trimming demand for plentiful food grains.