Ag Secretary on Trade

Ag Secretary on Trade. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. On Friday Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack was up early discussing some new trade tactics before presenting them to attendees of the annual Commodity Classic. Vilsack spent a few minutes on the phone with me discussing how important trade was to not only the ag community. VILSACK: Folks who understand and appreciate trade realize for every billion dollars of agricultural trade that we are able to generate, not only do we help farmers and farm families and ranch families but we also help employ people outside of farming. 9000 jobs are connected to every $1-billion dollars of ag trade that's created so it's important for us as a national strategy to look for ways we can expand trade. Vilsack began by saying that to keep trade robust a new strategic approach was necessary. VILSACK: That new approach really begins with an understanding that trade isn't so much about geography as it is about the status of markets and it's important for us to distinguish between markets. Not every country, not every area of the world is in the same position from a market perspective. And so we have to have a trade program that reflects the differences and distinctions. He laid out a 5 part plan to keep trade active and growing in the U.S. VILSACK: There's a market strategy for fragile markets. These are countries like Afghanistan for example that are probably not in a position to do much trading but if we can create a stable environment and a stable government and a stable economy over time they may become a trading partner so we invest resources in helping create that stability. There are markets that are potential growth markets. These are smaller stable countries with prospects for moderate growth. Vilsack says these are markets that need special attention to help develop alliances and to reinforce the U.S. brand. VILSACK: There are some markets that are restricted or the access has been restricted. A wide range of implicit or explicit trade barriers have been constructed which limits our access to products and so our focus there needs to be on removing those barriers. India is a good example of a restricted access market today. And then there are rapid growth markets. These are areas where there's rising income, a middle class that's rising. Here our focus has to be on making sure the trading system doesn't set up barriers in anticipation of protecting domestic markets and making sure that regulations are based on sound science. China is one of these and tomorrow we'll talk with Ag Secretary Vilsack about the fifth trade strategy and more. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.