Ag Groups say time to cross the finish line on free trade agreements

Farm and Ranch May 27, 2011 There is not a complicated message here. Let’s get her done. It is time to cross the finish line. Those were statements made by representatives of several agricultural organizations this week at a news conference where they urged immediate passage of U.S. free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

It recently looked like the administration was ready to send the trade agreements to Congress but then its position on helping American workers with the Trade Adjustment Act raised another hurdle.

The three trade pacts have been languishing for quite some time since negotiators originally signed them. Dana Peterson of the National Association of Wheat Growers put that in perspective at the news conference.

Peterson: “Since the day they were signed in November 2006 we have had the biggest recession since the Great Depression. We have elected a new President who has said he is going to run yet again in the next election. We have held both Winter and Summer Olympics.”

Peterson explained the impact of the lack of one of these agreements because of competition.

Peterson: “That a hundred-billion dollars in sales of wheat will be lost to Colombia alone if that agreement is not done this summer. In fact our buyers of U.S. wheat are already transitioning their mills to use wheat sourced from other locations.”

Among the other groups urging passage of the trade deals were the American Farm Bureau, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the National Corn Growers Association.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.