Letter to the Editor

Trade pacts bad for Nebraska agriculture

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Pending free trade agreements with Korea, Colombia and Panama are bad for Nebraska farmers and must be rejected if we are to preserve our way of life.

All three trade treaties are based on NAFTA-style policies which have displaced American farmers while sending jobs that support Nebraska's rural communities offshore. In fact our leading export is jobs and we reward companies that outsource jobs. Since NAFTA took effect, the United States has lost 300,000 farms and millions of jobs.

Major commodity groups and agribusiness organizations are making dubious claims that there will be massive export gains for farm products as a result of these free trade agreements (FTAs). The American Farm Bureau Federation Farm has released a study that estimates the Korea FTA would result in $1.65 billion in additional U.S. agricultural sales - but the Farm Bureau's figures only look at gross exports while never including expanded imports.

Net trade is what matters. The Farm Bureau's fuzzy math also arbitrarily assumes an automatic 10 percent increase (a figure pulled out of thin air) for U.S. market share in Korea for every American agricultural sector, despite a finding from the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) that says corn, soybeans and wheat would be net losers, and rice is not even covered in the Korea FTA. The USITC projects many American agricultural sectors would face a worsening trade balance were the FTA to be implemented. This is a very serious manipulation.

Loopholes in the FTAs rules-of-origin promote "leakage," so countries such as China and Vietnam are allowed to gain at our expense. Since only 35 percent of a product's value must be added in Korea, there is a major trans-shipment risk from China in processed foods. Tons of contaminated Chinese honey is already flowing into the U.S. and we should not be allowing food processed in the U.S. or Korea but grown elsewhere to get FTA benefits such as the duty-free access provided by the deal.

Nebraska cattle and beef producers will also be harmed by these FTAs. The U.S. has NAFTA-style trade deals with 17 other nations, and our cumulative trade deficit in cattle and beef is twice as high with these 17 countries as it is with the rest of the world. Over the past 30 years, more than half a million beef ranchers have left the industry as large meatpackers have reaped the benefits of these flawed trade agreements.

Under the proposed deal, Korea could import cattle from China (the world's third-largest cattle herd) and get preferred treatment to ship that beef to the U.S. Adding insult to injury, South Korea bans imports of our beef from cattle over 30 months old due to fears of mad cow disease. Colombia, a major beef producer, would also be able to trans-ship from Brazil, a gargantuan beef producer whose imports would harm our cattle industry.

Finally, all three FTAs weaken American sovereignty. Foreign investors and foreign corporations would be able to challenge state and federal laws before unelected, unaccountable international tribunals. The American taxpayer would have no rights of due process, and we'd be on the hook to pay compensation for claimed trade pact violations.

We see how this works with the recent World Trade Organization ruling striking down the U.S. country of origin labeling law. That law -- approved by the U.S. Congress -- lets consumers know where the food they eat is grown. The Canadian and Mexican governments challenged it, saying it gives food grown in the U.S.A. an unfair advantage over imports. If the ruling stands, the will of the American people will be nullified by anonymous bureaucrats in Geneva, and American citizens could be asked to pay "damages" to foreign agribusinesses "hurt" by our country-of-origin laws.

We urge Congressman Adrian Smith to reject these badly flawed trade deals. Nebraska's farmers and working families deserve fair trade and a fair shake, not the continued attack on our way of life that these pacts represent.

Curtis W. Ellis is the executive director of the American Jobs Alliance http://www.americanjobsalliance.com/

John K. Hansen is president of Nebraska Farmers Union http://www.nebraskafarmersunion.org/

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