The Hill: Agreements promise boon for agriculture
Mar 18, 2010
In The News
President Barack Obama says he is eager to create new jobs, and time and again he has spoken to the importance of trade. We have heard on more than one occasion that exports are a critical component of our economy. Yet, the president refuses to act to open up market access for U.S.
The Obama administration continues to pass up opportunities to lay out a clear path for expanding U.S.
Neither the president’s budget proposal, nor his export initiative, nor this year’s trade policy agenda places a practical emphasis on boosting U.S.
Last week, President Obama signed an executive order to establish two new advisory government panels for promoting exports, one that will consist of government officials, the other for business leaders. Instead of growing the size of government, a better use of our resources would be to focus on job-creating initiatives that are already in play, such as our pending free trade agreements.
Each and every American can benefit from opening markets for our exports. American farmers and ranchers are so efficient they are able to produce more than enough food to feed this nation. As one of the most trade-dependent industries, our agricultural producers work hard to find new customers abroad. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, agricultural exports support one-third of all jobs on the farm as well as two-thirds of jobs off the farm in supporting industries. For every dollar of goods we export, another $1.48 is created in activities such as processing, finance, shipping and packaging of agricultural goods. U.S.
For more than a year, we have watched the president allow our trade agreements to languish on the sidelines. We still only see rhetoric and not action on this important issue. This week the administration has embarked upon negotiations with some of our trading partners in the Pacific region. We hope that the negotiations will be successful and that the final deal will contain a positive outcome for agriculture. However, completion of that agreement is potentially years away. Meanwhile, we already have an agreement pending with one of our most important political and economic allies in the region.
The U.S.-Korean free trade agreement was designed to secure immediate, duty-free access for almost two-thirds of Korean imports of U.S.
Throughout the U.S. U.S. beef industry strongly supports this agreement because it served as a catalyst for negotiating an agreement to resume beef exports to Korea
In addition to this agreement, we have pending pacts with Panama and Colombia Colombia Colombia even though the U.S. imposes no tariffs on Colombian exports to the U.S.
In particular, one sector of the U.S. Colombia is traditionally the largest South American market for U.S. Colombia duty-free, and the Canadian government is poised to implement an agreement that would cut the U.S.
The third major agreement still awaiting action by the president is the one signed with Panama U.S. exports of poultry to Panama U.S.
Combined, these three trade agreements are worth more than $2.6 billion in new market access for agriculture. The president and his advisers have acknowledged the importance of expanding market access. They have talked about how additional exports can benefit America America
Lucas serves on the House Agriculture and Financial Services committees.
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