An update on free trade agreements
Farm and Ranch May 9, 2011 Despite some recent movement on free trade agreements it is not expected that congressional ratification of three long-pending trade agreements, that are key for agriculture, will happen until at least late summer. Ag groups have repeatedly cited July 1st, when Canada and the European Union will implement competing trade deals as the target date by which Congress should pass U.S. deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea. While heartened the White House has signaled it’s ready for talks on implementing bills for all three trade agreements, American Farm Bureau’s Chris Garza says a 90-day statutory clock for hill action hasn’t started yet. Garza: “There is a time clock though based off of trade promotion authority and that time clock is there for a reason, to make sure the process is moving forward. But honestly, at the end of the day it is in the hand of Congress and Congress themselves can move this bill however quickly they want to even faster than what is authorized under trade promotion authority.” In the U.S. Senate, Finance chair Max Baucus, who holds the fate of the FTA’s in his hands, has officially thrown his support behind the South Korean deal. Garza: “The senator got exactly what he was hoping for at the end of the day, which was consultations with Korea on beef after the agreement comes into implementation.” Garza says the Farm Bureau hopes for passage and signing of the Colombia, Panama and South Korean trade deal bills by the end of this summer. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net. ? ?
