February 15, 2011
US ex-agriculture secretaries call on approval of trade deal
US agricultural and food organizations firmly support the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) which received (Feb 8) a bipartisan endorsement from eight ex-secretaries of agriculture.
In a letter to members of Congress, Bob Bergland, John Block, Mike Espy, Dan Glickman, Mike Johanns, John Knebel, Ed Schafer and Clayton Yeutter urged lawmakers to vote to approve the trade pact's enabling legislation, saying, "It is imperative that the KORUS FTA be implemented as soon as possible."
"The KORUS FTA will offer enormous new opportunities for our products in a market that is large and growing," added the secretaries, who pointed out that the deal will boost US agricultural goods entering South Korea duty-free to US$3 billion from about US$14 million now.
"The KORUS FTA is a tremendous deal for the US pork industry and many other industries, and we're very grateful that eight former Agriculture secretaries support the agreement," said Sam Carney, a pork producer from Adair, Iowa, and president of the National Pork Producers Council, which is one of the 61 coalition members.
He said, "This deal will increase our pork exports as well as the exports of many other US goods, bringing America great economic benefits and thousand of badly needed jobs. Those former cabinet members recognize the value and importance of this FTA."
The Korean market is now the fifth largest for US agricultural exports, valued at US$3.9 billion in 2009. According to an economic analysis conducted by the American Farm Bureau Federation, the KORUS FTA would expand those exports in a wide range of commodities, resulting in US$1.8 billion in additional sales – a 46 % increase – and 14,000 jobs.
The former Agriculture secretaries said American farmers can compete with anyone in the world if given a "level playing field." But they will not have one in South Korea without the KORUS FTA, they wrote, pointing out that many other countries have completed or are negotiating trade deals of their own with the Asian nation.
According to USDA, the United States currently accounts for 30% of Korea's agricultural imports, but that is down from almost 45% in the mid-1990s.
"We have already seen our market share in Korea decline because of other countries' FTAs," the secretaries said. "That trend can be reversed and, indeed, can only be reversed, through the KORUS FTA."
