FTA's Pass & LightSquared's Troubles

FTA’s Pass & LightSquared’s Troubles. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Well it didn’t take Congress any time at all to pass those three free trade agreements with Panama, South Korea and Columbia. Sort of makes you wonder what all the fuss was. Well Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack is pleased and commented on the passage.

VILSACK: We’re pleased that both houses of Congress acted swiftly to ratify trade agreements with South Korea, Columbia and Panama; as well as the Trade Adjustment Assistance to help train workers for the 21st century economy. For American agriculture these agreements mean over $2.3-billion dollars in additional exports supporting nearly 20-thousand jobs here at home all along the market chain. Passage of these agreements also levels the playing fields and secures markets for farmers, ranchers, growers and producers.

Agricultural groups have hailed the passage of the free trade agreements. The National Pork Producers Council called it one of the greatest victories ever for the U.S. pork industry.

A number of ag groups including Farm Bureau told the House Small Business Committee Wednesday that the FCC and LightSquared must complete comprehensive and rigorous testing on all proposed technical fixes to ensure there is no interference between broadband and GPS signals. LightSquared’s wireless internet service has been found to dramatically interfere with GPS signals. They also believe LightSquared should cover the expense of all technical fixes related to the interference issue to ensure the cost is not passed along to farmers and ranchers.

Now here’s today’s Washington Grange report.

(Grange)

That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.