Minnesota U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, a critic of Bush administration trade policies, stands to become the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee with the defeat of veteran Democrat Rep. Charles Stenholm of Texas.

Peterson was elected to an eighth term Tuesday and can now expect to assume a high profile on the committee and in the debate over the pending Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the administration's top trade priority in the next session of Congress.

Peterson opposes CAFTA as a threat to sugar beet farmers in his district, who say increased sugar imports from Central America could shutter 25 percent of the businesses in the Red River Valley. "For the first time, we were able to make sugar and trade agreements a big part of the presidential campaign, at least in this part of the world," Peterson said Wednesday. "We clearly got the attention of both [John] Kerry and the administration, and that will help us. "The Bush administration has negotiated a treaty between the United States and the Central American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

But Congress has yet to ratify it, and a protracted battle is expected when it is brought up for debate, likely after the next Congress is seated in January. "We're going to work to defeat it," said Nick Sinner, executive director of the Red River Valley Sugar Beet Growers Association, which represents about 3,000 farmers in Minnesota and North Dakota. Trade agreements such as CAFTA don't come under the jurisdiction of the Agriculture Committee, but its members are influential on big deals that affect farmers. CAFTA critics see Peterson as a welcome ally. "Collin's role will be significantly expanded," said Tom Buis, of the National Farmers Union. "This will give him a pulpit." Peterson's ascendancy, which must be approved by the Democratic caucus on Nov. 17, is being received well by state farm groups. "It bodes well for Minnesota agriculture to have one of our own in a leadership position," said Al Christopherson, a Pennock, Minn., farmer who heads the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation. Peterson, a centrist, is known for working well with Republicans. But he said lobbyists for Southern farming interests already have started calling him. "The cotton and rice guys are nervous," Peterson said.

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