Regional agricultural leaders met to show unified opposition to the pending deal, underscoring the growing skepticism of farmers and ranchers about trade deals like NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and CAFTA. Rally-goers said Wednesday that free trade agreements like NAFTA have been disastrous for American farmers and they want CAFTA to go away quickly as many jobs could be lost if this trade agreement passes. CAFTA was modeled after NAFTA, so many state ag leaders have reason to worry.
The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee will hold its first CAFTA hearing today.
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Sugar officials in the past said they oppose including sugar in the proposed CAFTA agreement, saying it would lead to sugar imports greatly in excess of U.S. needs, make the no-cost sugar policy inoperable and ultimately lead to the destruction of the U.S. sugar industry. Increased imports of only a few hundred thousand tons of sugar would cancel today's marketing allotment system, cause forfeitures of sugar loans to the government at significant taxpayer cost, allow existing surplus sugar onto the market and destroy the U.S sugar policy and price.
Studies by Louisiana State University and North Dakota State University conclude that excess imports of 1 million tons would drive the U.S. price down by 30-40 percent and few American sugar producers would survive. The risk is 146,000 jobs in 19 states being put at jeopardy.
"Bottom line, this deal is anything but a boon for agriculture, and Congress should reject it immediately," Williams said, a wheat, soybean and sugar beet farmer from Fisher, Minn. "NAFTA wasn't a boon and CAFTA won't be either."
Congressman Collin Peterson said in a news release that "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that U.S. farmers are on the losing end of these trade deals. Exports are flat and imports are rapidly growing," Peterson said. "The saddest part about it is that our trade negotiators keep making the same mistakes in agreements like CAFTA."
NAFTA opponents say it eliminated tariffs completely, and removed many barriers, like import licenses, that excluded U.S. goods from other markets, especially Mexico. The House Committee on Agriculture Democrats said NAFTA failed to adequately consider increased imports and job losses.
According to U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton, if implemented, CAFTA would also allow increased sugar imports from Central America and the Dominican Republic into the United States, jeopardizing the sugar beet industry in northwestern Minnesota and putting 32,500 industry jobs at risk. Minnesota is the nation's top sugar beet producer.
American farmers and ranchers are not listening to promises this time around, Williams said. "They've been promised, but nothing has materialized."
There is a clear and present danger currently being debated on Capitol Hill, Williams said.
The subject has been in the works for more than a year, but there weren't enough votes to pass the measure so approving CAFTA did not come to a Congressional vote.
Last year Dayton joined with U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota to offer a Senate resolution that called for sugar to be excluded from all future trade talks.
"This is a bad deal, not just for sugar, but for the whole country," said Mike Hasbargen of Breckenridge. Hasbargen is Chairman of the Board of Directors with Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative of Wahpeton and a sugar beet farmer himself.
A bipartisan international trade committee said full implementation of CAFTA would increase our trade and Hasbargen said this just isn't true.
"Why weren't they wearing our jersey when they made that kind of deal," Hasbargen asked.
"We feel the World Trade Organization is where we have the best chance for fair negotiations. a level playing field so we can compete internationally."
America's agricultural imports have soared in recent years while the U.S. agricultural trade surplus has plummeted. For the first time in 46 years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts that in 2005, the Unites States will import as much as it exports.
There is a real concern for subsidized ethanol coming into the country as well, Hasbargen said, who stressed corn growers need to take a look at whether they can compete internationally with imported ethanol.
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