USCA Opposes Colombian Free Trade Agreement

Doug Zalesky, USCA's Trade Committee Chairman and Region IV Director, noted the agreement lacks protections for U.S. cattle producers and fails to prohibit the transshipment of cattle or beef from other countries through Colombia. With foot-and-mouth disease rampant in nearby countries, the agreement fails to provide phytosanitary safeguards to protect the U.S. cattle herd from disease.

"The agreement fails to set forth special rules for cattle and beef as was required when the Trade Promotion Act was passed," said Zalesky. "Without these safeguards for U.S. cattle producers, the Colombian FTA is another agreement that, with other FTA's, will cumulatively result in cattle producers losing their competitve edge in the global market. Colombia has a relatively small cattle herd, approximately 22 million head, but together with Peru and Ecuador the numbers are substantial. U.S. trade laws recognize this and call it a "hammering effect", where individual countries may have a limited impact, but combined countries have a significant impact."

USCA is once again concerned that special rules have not been a fundamental element of recent FTA's, despite a requirement to include such rules when the Trade Promotion Act passed the Congress. Further, USCA has supported a "snap back" provision in FTA's that would curtail imports of cattle and beef when feeder cattle in the U.S. dropped below the cost of production. Recent FTA's have included no such provision and are a concern for U.S. cattle producers.

Established in March 2007, USCA is committed to assembling a team to concentrate efforts in Washington D.C. to enhance and expand the cattle industry's voice on Capitol Hill. For membership forms and other information visit www.uscattlemen.org.