Special Report
Former Ag Secretary calls for action on trade
Speaking Tuesday at the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum in Tampa, Fla., former Secretary of Agriculture Clayton Yeutter said it is time for action on trade agreements.
During the years of the George W. Bush administration, Korea, Colombia, and Panama free trade agreements were executed and signed but not presented to Congress by then-President Bush because he feared they would be turned down. Yeutter explained that the trade community felt the new president would have a “honeymoon period” which would have been a good time to move these trade agreements through.
“Trade was moved to back burner and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk twiddled thumbs,” said Yeutter.
A former U.S. Trade Representative himself, having served in that position from 185-1988, Yeutter said that everyone was sitting on their hands, wondering if the United States was ever going to provide any leadership in the trade policy arena.
“Trade is a very major element of pulling us out and has been the big winner. When will we get leadership? Well, not for at least 2 years,” said Yeutter. “President Obana has finally awakened – announcing a year ago he wanted to double exports (not just ag exports) bringing trade policy back into spotlight.”
Yeutter says it is time to stop tweaking and pass these free trade agreements.
“We’ve left the Colombian government twisting in the wind for 4 years. We’re losing sales every day! They’ve negotiated agreements with other countries – with our competitors.”
Yeutter said, “The president needs to tell labor unions to BACK OFF and let us get this done. There is no way we are going to meet his goal of doubling exports in the next 5 years unless he starts to show some leadership.”
The trade agreement Yeutter sees as having the greatest potential is the Trans-Pacific partnership. TPP includes the countries of Chile, Peru, Brunei, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the United States. Yeutter calls this 9-country group a “manageable universe.” He said it is appealing to American agriculture because this is where our markets are. Although China and India are not yet included, he said they could be bolted on at a later date. Yeutter has personally been involved in negotiating with Japan to get them to join this group. “If it does,” explained Yeutter, “U.S. agriculture is going to get very excited.”
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