12/07/07 Farm Bureau applauds U.S-Peru FTA passage

Washington Ag December 7, 2007 The Washington Farm Bureau and American Farm Bureau Federation are commending the U.S. Senate on its quick passage of the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement this week. The agreement, which now goes to the president for his signature, is estimated to increase U.S agricultural trade by $705 million per year after full implementation. The Farm Bureau says the agreement benefits all U.S. agriculture with gains to be spread across all sectorsfrom livestock to fiber, grains and oilseeds to fruits and vegetables. Washington Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell voted in support of the agreement. American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman is encouraging Congress to now move ahead with the Columbia and Panama free trade pacts. John Keeling, CEO of the National Potato Council says potatoes will benefit from the Peru agreement as they would from the Columbia and Panama trade deals. Keeling: "For us it is largely about frozen exports. All those treaties would reduce the tariffs on frozen potato exports from the U.S. to zero from an average of 15-20%. So it immediately makes us more competitive in those markets and that is important to us." The U.S. wheat industry says the trade agreement with Peru offers a good chance to increase U.S. wheat sales to the South American nation by nearly 67 million dollars a year at today's prices. I'm Bob Hoff.