Thread: CAFTA no deal for Colorado

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Article Last Updated: Friday, July 01, 2005 - 1:37:23 PM MST

CAFTA no deal for Colorado

By ALAN WELP, Guest column


Welp, a Colorado Farm Bureau member, is a corn, wheat and sugarbeet farmer from Wray.

"We do not support CAFTA."

That is the Colorado Farm Bureau's official policy statement on the pending trade pact with Central America, which might explain why the organization is urging the state's congressional representatives to vote "no" on CAFTA.

The Colorado Farm Bureau is to be commended for standing up for the state's farmers and ranchers and doing what is right, even though it meant taking a different position on this issue than the American Farm Bureau Federation.

In recent weeks, many agribusinesses, using the federation's analysis, have attempted to pressure rural members of Congress into supporting CAFTA by releasing inflated economic projections of the trade pact's potential impact on farmers in their districts.

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7/1/2005
- CAFTA is a good deal
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In fact, this study underscored just how miniscule CAFTA's benefits really are. This is not surprising when you consider that Central America's economy is smaller than that of New Haven, Connecticut.

According to the study, CAFTA exports - at best - could account for a paltry three-tenths of one percent of farm sales in Colorado's Fourth Congressional district. And that's only after the CAFTA agreement would be fully implemented in 2024.

That means nothing at the farm gate. That is just pitiful.

It's especially pitiful when you consider that these projections included huge assumptions that defy logic.

For example, Colorado wheat farmers are told that their CAFTA exports might account for 1 percent of sales. That's seems impossible when you consider that U.S. wheat farmers already have duty-free access to Central America so there's absolutely nothing to be gained under CAFTA.

In this part of the country cattle is big business, but the farm bureau federation's projections left ranchers scratching their heads. The study says that ranchers - at best - might see a 0.23 percent increase by the year 2024.

As low as that number is, it too seems like a stretch when you consider that the majority of Central Americans earn less than $2 a day. How will they be unable to afford the prime cuts of beef CAFTA allows U.S. ranchers to sell?

Anyone closely examining the study noticed that there was one glaring omission. The study did not compute the impact that CAFTA would have on sugar.

This was conveniently left off the study for Colorado's Fourth Congressional district because immediate losses to local sugar farmers would far outweigh the tiny gains other commodities might see after a couple of decades.

As farmers and ranchers, we are always promised the moon when trade deals are being negotiated. Unfortunately, these promises never come true.

My father used to say that rule one of digging a hole is to stop digging when you hit rock bottom. We're in a big hole right now, and our current policies are not working.

Let's just hope that Colorado's lawmakers in Washington show the same courage that the Colorado Farm Bureau showed. Let's hope they stop digging and vote "no" on CAFTA.

GO COLORADO FARM BUREAU!!

You Stand With Us, and We'll Stand With You!!

NO TO CAFTA!! NO NO NO NO NO NO NO A Thousand Times NO!!

We need as much support as we can get. Let's hope that we can get this bill defeated in the House.

AMEN TO THAT JP!!

We'll do everything we can to defeat CAFTA in the house. Every day more and more Americans learn what CAFTA is all about...everyone will be charged up with America, as always, after the 4th of July!! People are talking, people are noticing, people are catching on.

More every day. AND, you know what? If CAFTA passes, then we'll have a revolution and repeal that piece of garbage and toss all 2400 pages into a huge BonFire Chapel Hill Style!!