Lafayette Parish Farm Bureau: CAFTA approval was blow to La. sugar industry

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Aaron Duhon
Columnist

The U.S. Senate last week voted to approve the Central America Free Trade Agreement, which supporters say will eliminate tariffs and trade barriers and expand regional opportunities for the nation's farmers.

However, the Louisiana sugar industry, as well as sugar interests around the country, say the agreement will devastate their industry as a flood of cheap sugar, produced with $6 a day labor, pours into the U.S.

"This is literally a fight for our very survival," said John Gay, a Louisiana cane farmer and past president of the American Sugar Cane League. "It's a fight for a way of life and for Louisiana's 250-year-old sugarcane industry. We cannot afford to lose. We will leave no stone unturned. We must defeat CAFTA."

While observers feel the House is still many votes short to approve CAFTA, the Senate approval dealt a big blow to the sugar industry. USDA Secretary Mike Johanns praised the Senate vote, adding it would open "these markets on a fair and an equitable basis, (and) we could double U.S. agricultural exports to these countries."

The Senate's vote was 54-45, with U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-New Orleans, and David Vitter, R-Metarie, voting against the measure.

"CAFTA is a raw deal for the Louisiana sugarcane industry," Vitter said on the Senate floor during debate leading up to the vote. "This agreement would allow an additional 122,000 tons of imported sugar into the United States in its first year alone, with annual increases following. These increases in imports threaten to flood the U.S. market and devastate the Louisiana sugarcane industry as domestic sugar is displaced by highly subsidized foreign imports.

"Our sugar program is designed to limit imports to help counter unfair trade actions," Vitter continued. "These limits help mitigate the ill effects of dumping by other nations. Unlike programs for many other farm commodities, the U.S. sugar program provides no cash payments and operates at no cost to the U.S. taxpayer, as mandated by the Farm Bill."

The Louisiana Farm Bureau estimates that CAFTA would have cause an $8.5 million reduction in Louisiana's ag sector. Louisiana has an estimated 27,000 sugar industry jobs, 15 sugar mills, two sugar refineries and more than 580,000 acres of sugarcane in 24 parishes. The state produces 20 percent of the nation's domestic sugar.

Sugar producers like Lafourche grower Rodney Foret said the Senate vote was "disappointing," adding it will be up to the U.S. House to keep the Louisiana sugar industry alive.

"If CAFTA passes in the House, I don't know what a lot of growers will do," Foret said. "We just won't be able to compete with the cheap sugar from countries were labor makes in day what I pay my workers per hour. Given the high cost of production right now and other regulatory issues, many producers I know won't be able to keep farming if CAFTA passes."

(Aaron Duhon is president of the Lafayette Parish Farm Bureau.)

Originally published July 9, 2005