Traders push for FTA deals to aid US agricultural exports

 

 

Congress should pass US free-trade agreements (FTA) with South Korea, Colombia and Panama to meet President Barack Obama's goal of doubling exports in the next five years, a group of agricultural trade groups said.

 

Legislation to pass the agreements, which would boost US agricultural exports by US$2.5 billion, has stalled in Congress, Bob Stallman, the president of the American Farm Bureau Association, said. Without the agreements, the US may lose market share in those three countries to competing exporters including Canada and the EU, Stallman said.

 

Livestock producers may have the most to gain from a FTA with South Korea, Don Butler, a past president of the National Pork Producers Council, said. Korea was the sixth-largest importer of US pork in 2009 and the fifth-largest buyer of beef. The country is currently the seventh-largest US trading partner.

 

Finalising the accord with Korea would boost pork exports by US$825 million annually and add US$10 a head to every US hog sold for slaughter, Butler said. The agreement would generate US$325 million annually for beef producers, according to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

 

The US-South Korean agreement was signed in June 2007, according to the US Trade Representative (USTR). 95% of US products traded with Korea would be available duty-free within three years of the deal being approved by Congress.

 

Meanwhile, agreements with Colombia and Panama would add about US$1.35 to the price that farmers receive per hog, according to the Pork Producers. The US signed agreements with Colombia in November 2006 and with Panama in June 2007, according to the USTR.