Everyone in the Red River Valley knows when the sugar beet harvest is on. Trucks roll around the clock and the storage sites transform into huge piles of hundreds of thousands of sugar beets which will take an entire winter to process.

The sugar industry is an economic powerhouse in our state, accounting for a $2 billion impact on the region and providing over 13,000 jobs - not just on the farm or at the plants, but also at implement dealerships, banks, and in businesses up and down Main Street.

Unfortunately, a threat to sugar is brewing on Capitol Hill. In the coming months, Congress will consider the Central American Free Trade Agreement - a flawed trade deal that opens the U.S. market to a new influx of imported sugar priced below the cost of production. With hearings in both chambers of Congress expected on CAFTA in the coming weeks, it is more important than ever that we maintain our united front in opposition to this agreement. I have been proud of the focused and effective opposition shown by U.S. sugar producers. The 25,000 signatures on petitions circulated in our region and the diligence of North Dakota growers flying into Washington have been essential to our efforts to build a bipartisan coalition in Congress to kill CAFTA. Without this opposition, I am convinced that proponents of CAFTA would have run this treaty through for ratification by now. After all, it was negotiated well over a year ago.

The truth is that CAFTA supporters don't have the votes: In the House, estimates are that CAFTA is dozens of votes short of passing. By keeping the pressure on, we aim to make certain they never get them. I've been told sugar beet growers will be in Washington from now until the vote to make certain those who are undecided know what this means to family farmers. At a time when a farmer needs to think about spring work, working the halls of Congress is about as fun as a root canal, but it is vitally important in this fight.

Not only would CAFTA spell trouble for our region, but it would also cause our country's trade standing to deteriorate further. The U.S. trade deficit is at an all-time high and in February alone, our country imported $61 billion dollars more than it exported. Worse yet, for the first time in over 50 years, our country may end up importing more agricultural products than we send overseas. Just imagine: the United States - the same country that fed the world for the greater part of the 20th Century - as a net food importer. It makes one wonder whose side our trade negotiators have been on.

I think it is sheer foolishness to take steps which could spell the beginning of the end of U.S. sugar production at a time when our trade deficit is at an all-time high and when the United States is at risk of importing more agricultural products than it exports. As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, which oversees trade, I will be doing everything possible to kill CAFTA and other trade deals that leave our producers holding the bag. We need to rethink the way we approach trade our country, and it starts with beating back CAFTA.

Pomeroy, a member of the Ways and Means and Agriculture Committees, represents North Dakota in the House of Representatives. E-mail: Rep.Earl.Pomeroy@mail.houe.gov

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