Agricultural News
Former Ag Secretaries Back Korea FTA
Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:18:45 CSTThe Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement has received a bipartisan endorsement from eight former 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 former Agriculture Secretaries said American farmers can compete with anyone in the world if given a - level playing field. But they won't have one in South Korea without the KORUS FTA, pointing out that many other countries have completed or are negotiating trade deals of their own with the Asian nation. Quoting from the letter, we have already seen our market share in Korea decline. That trend can be reversed and, indeed, can only be reversed, through the KORUS FTA.
The Korean market is now the fifth largest for U.S. agricultural exports, valued at 3.9-billion dollars 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 1.8-billion dollars in additional sales a 46 percent increase and 14-thousand jobs.
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