CAFTA-DR Vote Expected This Week, Corn Growers Continue Drive for
Final Passage
(7-25-05)
In what could
be the final week of debate on the Central American-Dominican Republic
Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), the National Corn Growers Association
(NCGA) is continuing the drive to get final passage of the agreement
through the House of Representatives.
Citing that CAFTA-DR
could enhance U.S. agricultural exports by $1.5 billion when fully
implemented, NCGA continues its push to garner the support needed
for the agreement which is expected to go to the House floor for
a vote on July 27. NCGA staff are meeting all this week with various
House members and will be meeting with House leadership Wednesday.
NCGA is continuing to
urge growers to blanket their legislators with calls supporting
CAFTA-DR. Growers can call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard for the
House at 202-225-3121 and state their zip code to reach their legislators.
In a final push, NCGA
also sent a letter today to every member of the U.S. House of Representatives
strongly supporting passage, touting its importance to agriculture
and dispelling recent media reports that incorrectly stated CAFTA-DR
would open borders and flood the U.S. market with duty-free ethanol.
“CAFTA will level
the playing field for agriculture, as U.S. markets are already open
to agriculture imports from CAFTA countries,” NCGA President
Leon Corzine wrote in the letter. “The ethanol market is the
single most successful and fastest-growing value-added market for
farmers. NCGA has worked tirelessly to advance the ethanol market
in the United States and would not support any legislation or free
trade agreement that would impede the growth of the domestic ethanol
industry.”
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Secretary Mike Johanns also signed onto the letter in an effort
to replace fiction with facts.
"Under current law,
ethanol cannot be simply transshipped to the United States through
Central American and Caribbean countries, and CAFTA-DR will not
change that,” said Johanns. “In addition, CAFTA-DR will
help us take a step forward in tightening our provisions related
to ethanol; and the rules of origin for ethanol quantities exceeding
the quota have been tightened by essentially eliminating the allowances
for non-regional feedstock. We need this agreement and we need to
get it on the president's desk now."
The letter makes clear
that under the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), duty-free status
is given to any ethanol regardless of domestic content on 60 million
gallons or up to 7 percent of the U.S. domestic production total,
whichever is greater (currently 186.9 million gallons per year).
The letter also explains
that the agreement does nothing to make the ethanol provisions contained
in the CBI any more or less permanent than they were made with the
enactment of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act of 1990.
To read the
text of the letter, click here.