Farmers Union to Host Washington Fly-In on CAFTA, Budget Cuts, and Canadian Cattle

Washington, D.C. and Lincoln, NE (March 10, 2005) – With the 2006 budget and a number of trade negotiations on the horizon, more than 100 farmers and ranchers will be in Washington, D.C., next week to make sure Congress keeps rural needs in mind. Nebraska Farmers Union President John Hansen and Steve Loschen of Wilcox will participate in the Fly-In.

During National Farmers Union’s legislative fly-in, March 14-16, farmers and ranchers from across the country will urge their congressional members to oppose the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), to reject President Bush’s proposed agricultural budget cuts and to stop the administration’s rush to reopen the border to Canadian cattle and beef. “These three issues are all big pocketbook issues. They will have enormous economic impacts on farm and ranch families. We will also be asking why USDA has failed to get emergency disaster checks for 2003 and 2004 out to hard pressed producers,” said John Hansen.

“As a whole, the administration’s trade agenda seems more inclined to negotiate with countries that want increased access to U.S. markets rather than with countries interested in buying more of our agricultural products,” said NFU President Dave Frederickson. “The Central American countries under CAFTA, for example, have a combined population of about 31 million people with limited resources that could be used to purchase agricultural products. Meanwhile, we will see a flood of new imports of sugar, fruit, vegetables, ethanol and other commodities.”

Hansen, a Clinton and Bush Administration trade advisor said, “ Instead of rectifying the worst flaws of previous trade agreements, CAFTA compounds them. CAFTA will accelerate our ‘race to the bottom’ for ag commodity prices and farm incomes. Current U.S. ag trade policy has failed to deliver on promises of expanded ag trade volume, has caused the collapse of domestic ag prices to disastrous levels, and dramatically increased the importation of competing ag commodities. Our balance of ag trade was $27.4 billion in 1996. It is projected to be zero by the end of 2005. This CAFTA as negotiated will accelerate the dismantling of our traditional system of family farm agriculture and rural communities,” Hansen said. “We desperately need to rethink our national trade policy, and the farm policy that it brings with it.”

The fly-in participants will also urge Congress to oppose the agricultural budget cuts that President Bush proposes for the fiscal year 2006 budget. While the Senate Budget Committee has significantly pulled back from the administration’s proposed agricultural spending cuts – which the Congressional Budget Office now estimates would equal $18 billion – the House Budget Committee is reportedly more in line with the administration’s proposal.

“It is wrong for President Bush to ask rural America to balance the budget on its back,” Frederickson said. “Agricultural programs are not the cause of the record federal deficit and, therefore, should not be the primary solution.”

Finally, with recent passage of a Senate joint resolution to stop the U.S. Agriculture Department from prematurely reopening the border to Canadian cattle and beef, the Farmers Union members will urge House leadership to advance a vote on a similar resolution. Frederickson said Farmers Union will not approve imports from any nation with documented cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) until U.S. international beef export markets are wholly re-established, mandatory country-of-origin labeling is fully implemented, and the country can verify their cattle and beef are BSE-free and that it has complied with the ruminant feed ban.

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Audio is available at www.nfu.org.