Johanns pushes free trade in visit
Posted on Friday, April 13, 2007
Central American trade was the topic of the day, but U. S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns couldn’t help talking about the latest bilateral trade accord struck by the United States and the comprehensive farm bill of 2007 as he toured Northwest Arkansas on Thursday.
Johanns spent much of Thursday between Fayetteville and Bentonville, ending his day in a rustic farm building in Bentonville at a round-table discussion with six ambassadors from Central America and the Caribbean.
He praised the Central American-Dominican Republic-United States-Free Trade Agreement of 2004, which reduced tariffs and increased export opportunities for American farmers. And so did Jose Guillermo Castillo, ambassador from Guatemala, who sees “great opportunities” for Northwest Arkansas’ major companies, Tyson Foods Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
America’s poultry sales to Guatemala have been uneven in recent years.
In 2004, the U. S. sold $ 44 million in chicken products to the Central American country. Poultry trade increased to about $ 48 million in 2005, but dropped to $ 41 million in 2006, according to data from the Foreign Agricultural Service at the U. S. Department of Agriculture.
Still, Castillo named poultry in particular as a potential source of increased exports for the United States. He said Guatemala could potentially triple its poultry imports — from about 88 million pounds a year to 264 million pounds.
“We are here to say, you know, this is a business that makes sense, for you and for us,” Castillo said.
Archie Schaffer, a senior vice president for Tyson who deals with government issues, said the meat producer sees Central America is a good growth opportunity. Currently, the Springdalebased company ships between $ 50 million and $ 100 million worth of meat products to those countries annually, he said.
Manuel Zuniga, vice president for corporate and legal affairs for Costa Rica-based Wal-Mart Central America, said the world’s largest retailer would add 64 stores of various sizes in Central America in 2007, bringing the total to 477 by the end of the year.
“We cater to basically all segments of the population,” Zuniga said outside Thursday’s roundtable event. “The idea is to bring our low prices to the population of Central America, and most of them really need to have those low prices available to improve their quality of life.” Earlier in the day, speaking before hundreds of law students, faculty and reporters at the University of Arkansas School of Law, Johanns underscored the value of the U. S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement that was eked out this month.
But without provisions for beef, he said the historic deal probably won’t make it through Congress. After speaking at a luncheon at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers, Johanns, the nation’s 28 th secretary of agriculture, explained his position.
“Senator after senator, in a very bipartisan way, Democrat and Republican, House member after House member, have said, ‘Look, we’ve got to solve the beef issue.’ I really think the pressure is on to get that solved,” Johanns said.
He said that, in general, the proposed trade pact with Korea is an “outstanding” agreement for the agriculture sector and the administration believes that the World Organization for Animal Health in May would classify U. S. beef as a “controlled risk,” which should ease the world’s concerns about buying U. S. beef.
“I really think that is going to be a big moving point, if you will, not only for Korea, but for other parts of the world,” Johanns said. “The timing on this is really good. I do think we’re going to have to get this issue solved and get beef moving, before we can move this FTA.” The U. S. and South Korea hammered out the trade agreement in early April, but beef shipments — while not technically part of the talks — were left largely unresolved. Beef shipments to the Asian nation stopped in early 2004 after a Washington state cow was found to have bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad-cow disease.
South Korea was the America’s third-largest overseas beef customer before the ban. The U. S. shipped $ 740 million in beef and veal to South Korea in 2003, according to data from the Foreign Agricultural Service. The next year, U. S. companies shipped no beef or veal to that country. Tyson sold about $ 330 million worth of cattle products to South Korea in 2003. That number declined in subsequent years, and by 2006, Tyson’s exports fell to a little more than $ 120 million — mainly cattle hides. “We appreciated Secretary Johanns’ comments about that,” Schaffer said. “We are still concerned about what is going on with beef, and are hopeful we will get that resolved” before the agreement goes to Congress for approval. Throughout the day, Johanns outlined the various proposals in the 2007 farm bill, including renewable energy initiatives that would allow America to become less reliant on foreign oil to fuel the economy.
To contact this reporter: dirvin@arkansasonline. com
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