Congress faces a busy agenda as it returns from its August recess—but U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) chairman Keith Miller says ratification of the three pending free trade agreements should be at the top of the priority list.

Miller says ratification of the FTAs would bring immediate benefits to the struggling U.S. economy.

“The jobs it can create across the U.S. is no small amount,” Miller says. “We need to get those products moving overseas and the one way we can do it is to sign those free trade agreements.”

Miller–a farmer-stockman from Great Bend, Kansas–says the U.S. is in danger of falling behind competitors in key export markets for U.S. beef and pork.

“I know Australia is really pushing hard to get a free trade agreement with Korea—and they are our largest competitor in the Korean market,” Miller says. “So we need to get that thing signed and get it in force because we see that it could be up to a billion dollars per year increase in exports if we can get this thing going.”

While the volume of meat trade with Panama and Colombia is not as high as Korea, Miller says those agreements are also very important because they represent potential future opportunities for U.S. beef and pork.

“We need to be moving them just as fast as we move the Korean FTA, because they’re getting a better lifestyle and they’re asking for better quality foods,” he says, “and we have that product that we can sell them if we can just get through these free trade agreements.”

At last week’s Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois, American Soybean Association President Alan Kemper of Indiana told Brownfield’s Dave Russell that if Congress doesn’t pass the FTA’s before December, he’s not sure it will even happen next year.