NCGA Rallies for CAFTA (5-26-05)
The National
Corn Growers Association (NCGA) continued its efforts to support
passage of the Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement
(CAFTA-DR) at a Capitol Hill rally yesterday. NCGA joined a broad
coalition of agriculture and business groups to rally for the agreement,
which would increase U.S. agriculture exports by $1.5 billion when
fully implemented.
In other CAFTA-related
action, NCGA in the last week has sent letters in support of the
trade agreement to the White House, the House of Representatives
and the Senate.
In the letters, NCGA
joined the other 68 members of the Agriculture Coalition for CAFTA-DR,
expressing concern that efforts by the U.S. sugar industry for full
exclusion from the agreement will result in a weakened trade agenda
in the future.
“Virtually all
agricultural sectors in the United States strongly support the Central
America – Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR)
and urge its rapid approval by Congress,” the letter states.
The coalition re-emphasized
that Congress has already given one-way access to U.S. markets through
trade preference arrangements to Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic,
El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. “On a trade-weighted
basis, over 99 percent of the food and agriculture products we import
from the region enter duty-free,” the letter stated.
The coalition believes
CAFTA-DR will level the playing field that has a trade deficit with
the CAFTA-DR. Food and agriculture tariffs that U.S. products must
overcome in the CAFTA-DR countries exceed 11 percent on average,
but can range as high as 150 percent or more.
U.S. imports in 2004
from these countries exceeded U.S. exports to the region by over
three $.75 billion. “Our market share in the CAFTA-DR nations
has fallen from 54 percent in 1995 to around 40 percent because
of preferential arrangements negotiated by these six countries with
our competitors. The implementation of CAFTA-DR will remedy this
problem,” The letter states.
The agriculture coalition
maintains CAFTA-DR will benefit all U.S. agricultural export interests
mainly because none were excluded from the final accord. “We
are deeply concerned that efforts by most of the U.S. sugar industry
to obtain a full exclusion from CAFTA-DR or other accommodations
will open the door to the withdrawal of important concessions for
some of our products. (We note that Imperial Sugar Company, representing
20% of the U.S. sugar industry, supports CAFTA.) We are also concerned
that any exclusions in this agreement will pave the way for exclusions
and counter-exclusions in future agreements, resulting in a downward
spiral to the lowest possible level of mutual agreement –
deals in which only non-sensitive commodities are included.”
The coalition did make
clear that although raising these concerns regarding the sugar industry,
that none are opposed to affording the sugar industry appropriate
treatment in trade agreements consistent with overall U.S. trade
policy.
To read the
letter in its entirety, please click on the following link.