Farmers Split on CAFTA
March 30, 2005
By Jeff Zent, The Forum

The region's sugar beet growers on Tuesday couldn't convince the nation's largest farm organization to pull its support for the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman said his organization and sugar industry officials "agree to disagree" over the controversial trade accord.

"When you look at the aggregate, CAFTA is a net positive for agriculture," Stallman said after a meeting with sugar industry leaders at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Moorhead.

An economic analysis completed by the American Farm Bureau shows that agricultural exports would grow by $945 million annually by eliminating tariffs on U.S. agricultural goods, Stallman said during a press conference.

The same study found that the U.S. sugar beet and cane industry would lose between $70 million and $80 million annually to increased imports from CAFTA partners, Stallman said.

U.S. sugar producers appear to be the only losers in agriculture trade while producers of poultry, pork, beef, corn and other commodities would gain markets, Stallman said.

CAFTA and other trade agreements threaten to destroy an industry that generates about $3 billion in economic activity in North Dakota and Minnesota each year, said Nick Sinner, executive director of the Fargo-based Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association.

"It may be viewed as a minor crop nationally, in terms of acreage, but it certainly has a huge impact here," Sinner said.

CAFTA would expand trade between the United States and six Latin American countries - El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.

If passed by Congress, CAFTA would increase foreign sugar producers' duty- free access to the United States by 110,000 metric tons in the first year of the agreement. That would expand by 2 percent each year for the next 15 years.

The sugar industry continues to build a coalition of industries and organizations that oppose CAFTA, labor unions, the textile industry and the National Farmers Union among them, Sinner said.

Still, many farmers and other industries that rely on exports to make a living are supporting CAFTA's passage.

The North Dakota Farm Bureau has broken ranks from its parent organization to oppose CAFTA, citing the trade agreement's possible impact on the region's sugar industry.

Other CAFTA supporters in agriculture include the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the American Soybean Association and the National Corn Growers Association.

The Minnesota Farm Bureau supports the accord, state President Al Christopherson said.

"If we want others in U.S. agriculture to support some of our other local issues, it's probably not in our best interest to cry foul, grab our bat and ball and go home," Christopherson said.

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