Farmers Increasingly Skeptical of Administration's Trade Plan.

FARGO, N.D. -- North Dakota, Minnesota Ag Leaders United in CAFTA Opposition

On the eve of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns' visit to North Dakota--part of a national effort to drum up support for a controversial trade pact with Central America (CAFTA)--the region's agricultural leaders met today in a show of unified opposition to the pending deal.

"Bottom line, this deal is anything but a boon for agriculture, and Congress should reject it immediately," Steve Williams, a wheat, soybean, and sugarbeet farmer from Fisher, Minnesota, said at a press briefing. "NAFTA wasn't a boon and CAFTA won't be either."

In recent weeks, administration officials have been met by similar skeptical statements as they've traveled across the country trying to convince farmers and ranchers that CAFTA would benefit agriculture.

North Dakota cattleman Terry Duppong with the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA), said America's ranchers aren't keen on CAFTA either. "The average Central American makes only dollars a day. Does anyone really think they're going to buy the filet mignons and New York strips that CAFTA allows us to export? If anything, Central American ranchers will send us more beef and drive U.S. ranchers out of business."

Other harsh CAFTA critics at the press briefing included: Roger Johnson, North Dakota's Agriculture Commissioner; State Senator Russell Thane, who sponsored the anti-CAFTA resolution that recently passed the North Dakota state legislature; and Richard Schlosser from the North Dakota chapter of the National Farmers Union, a group representing 250,000 farmers and ranchers across the country.

Wheat farmers from North Dakota and Minnesota--like wheat farmers throughout America--already enjoy virtually duty-free access to Central America and say they have little to gain from the proposed trade pact.

CAFTA opponents have pointed to the U.S. government's own economic projections as proof that CAFTA would mean very little to agriculture.

In August 2004, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) released economic projections that showed any gains under CAFTA would be miniscule because Central America is such a small market comprised of people who live well below the poverty line.

The economy of Central America is roughly the size of New Haven, Connecticut, and according to World Bank estimates, some 40 percent of Central Americans earn less than $2 per day.

The ITC report further went on to explain that U.S. grain producers would see virtually no benefits from CAFTA because U.S. grains already supply 94 percent of the Central American import market.

"In other words," Williams, who is also the president of the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association, explained, "even our own government's estimates show that there's virtually no market to gain."

He continued: "Soybean farmers already supply 95 percent of their imports. To make matters worse, most additional market access granted by CAFTA would be phased in over 15-20 years. Where's the big benefit the government continually promises America's farmers?"

These stark numbers, combined with America's record and growing trade deficit, might explain why CAFTA is facing such an uphill battle in Congress.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) recently denounced CAFTA. Congressman Earl Pomeroy (D-ND), a member of the Ways and Means Committee, opposes CAFTA. And the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, Collin Peterson (D-MN), has vowed to lead the charge to defeat the trade pact, which he says would destroy America's $9 billion sugar industry.

Other regional and national agricultural groups that are opposed to CAFTA include: the North Dakota Farm Bureau; Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers; the Minnesota Farmers Union; and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture.

The House Ways and Means Committee will hold its first CAFTA hearing on Capitol Hill tomorrow.