Bush Needs Farm Support for Trade Accord [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

Bush Needs Farm Support for Trade Accord
By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer

Sunday, April 10, 2005

(04-10) 23:17 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --


Sugar beet farmer Alan Welp fears a new free trade agreement with Central America would wreck his industry. Every pound of foreign sugar shipped to the United States is a pound that U.S. growers will store or just not grow, Welp said.

"We are already an oversupplied market," said Welp, who grows sugar, corn and wheat on 3,500 acres in northeast Colorado. "There's going to be huge job loss, and it will put a lot of farmers and processors out of business. So the negatives, in my opinion, far outweigh any of the positives."

Welp is an example of the problems confronting President Bush as he seeks approval of the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, negotiated last year with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, plus the Dominican Republic.

The administration needs support from agriculture to win the approval of Congress, but it doesn't have it yet. While admitting they lack the 218 votes needed in the House to pass it, Republican leaders still plan to bring it up in May.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/04/10/national/w231734D95.DTL