Debate intensifies over trade pact as vote looms
Monday, July 25, 2005 1:28 PM PDT
Larry Meyer - Argus Observer
ONTARIO - Oregon Congressman Greg Walden, R-Oregon, focused over the weekend on the upcoming vote in the United States House of Representatives regarding the Central American-Dominican Free Trade Agreement.
The House is expected to take up the controversial measure sometime this week and Walden remained undecided on how he will vote Friday.
While the majority of commodity groups in Oregon have come out in favor of the agreement, Oregon's congressional delegation has split on the issue, with both Sens. Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith voting with the majority when the Senate approved the agreement. Walden said Oregon's four other House members have come out against it.
Walden, Friday, hosted a conference call to discuss the agreement with supporters and people who opposed the pact and those that have questions about the agreement. The discussion included U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Portman, Malheur County Judge Dan Joyce, June Hartley, Nyssa, Hartley Farms and National Republican Committeewoman; Sharon Livingston, Long Creek, president-elect Oregon Cattlemen's Association; Bob Bushue, Clackamas County, president of the Oregon Farm Bureau president; Brad Anderson, Arlington, president of the Oregon Wheat Growers League; and Nels Iverson, Jefferson, vice chair of the Oregon Potato Commission.
The secretary of agriculture repeated the by now standard arguments in support of the agreement.
"About 99 percent of agriculture products (from Central America) enter the U.S. duty free," he said.
Oregon producers pay tariffs or duties 20 percent or higher on products they ship to Central American counties. Using cranberries as an example, Johanns said Oregon producers face 60 percent tariffs, and under the World Trade Organization, those countries could charge 100 percent. It is 30 percent tariff for beef, and the WTO allows tariffs up to 70 percent. Under CAFTA the tariffs would be eliminated immediately or within a certain amount time, Johanns said. Tariffs on choice and prime cuts of beefs would be eliminated immediately, he said.
"We're already losing market share in the region because we don't have a free trade agreement," Johanns said. "About 60 to 70 groups are on board," he said, noting that exports from Oregon amount to about $700 million in cash receipts.
"Everything the potato industry asked for in the agreement it received," Iverson said, voicing his support.
Livingston said the Oregon Cattlemen's Association had not yet taken a stand on the issue.
Hartley and Joyce expressed concerns the treaty will undermine U.S. sovereignty and that many people in those countries are not able to afford U.S. products.
"The current situation will not change if CAFTA is defeated," Johanns replied.
Complete access to markets would help those economies, he said.
"Now is the time to level the playing field," Johanns said. Asked about fruits and vegetables coming into this country with residue from DDT and other pesticides which have long been banned in the United States, the agriculture secretary said all imported products must meet U.S. requirements or they will not be allowed in.
"They have to meet our standards," he said. "We can require countries to meet our sanitation standards."
CAFTA will allow for much more stringent enforcement, he said.
Hartley also commented how the North American Free Trade Agreement had affected her family's farming operation, and asked if CAFTA would be similar.
"I don't believe it was patterned after NAFTA," Portman said. He said the U.S. trade officials had been working hard with ag producers on the CAFTA agreement.
"We shouldn't have named it CAFTA," the trade representative said. "It is not NAFTA. It is such a one sided agreement. It will result in a trades surplus," he said, adding that it would help reduce the U.S. trade deficit on other fronts.
Addressing concerns about third-party countries shipping their products into the United States through other CAFTA countries, to take advantage of the treaty, Portman said the agreement includes provisions to protect against that type of action.
"There will be tighter regulations and inspections," he said. "Countries will have better environmental regulations in place."
Johanns, addressing concerns of many in the Treasure Valley, said U.S. sugar producers will not be affected by CAFTA, and will be held harmless through the end of the current farm bill, at which the time current sugar program would be addressed. The concern is that the proposed treaty would bring in a lot of additional sugar into the United States which would be devastating to the domestic industry, already struggling with surpluses.
No Dhimmi wrote on Aug 14, 2009 9:38 PM:
And this isn't "racist," because Islam is not a race, anymore than Communism or Nazism are races, both of which killed far fewer people than Islam.
Disgusting. "