http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandfork ... 120029.htm

Posted on Wed, Jul. 13, 2005

Rally-goers increase the heat as vote nears

By Mikkel Pates

Herald Staff Writer

MOORHEAD - David Kragnes says he's tired of fighting DR-CAFTA, but, with a little help from his friends, he'll grind on through next week and even into September, if necessary, if that's when the vote comes in the U.S. House.

"Today we want our representatives to see the faces of CAFTA," said Kragnes, hosting more than 200 beet farmers and factory workers who attended a rally at American Crystal Sugar's technical center on July 12.

Sugar farmers believe the trade agreement would set a policy precedent for later agreements, which would send cheap imported sugar into the United States, flooding the market and putting the domestic industry out of business.

The rally was much like rallies over the past year, except for more pointed criticisms of Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who brokered a deal with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns to blunt the impact of DR-CAFTA on the domestic sugar industry in exchange for Coleman's vote on CAFTA when it passed the Senate recently.

Rep. Colin Peterson, D-Minn. and a champion of sugar in the House Agriculture Committee, had harsh words for Coleman and Rep. Mark Kennedy, R-Minn., who aspires to the Senate.

Coleman said the deal was important because it increases the amount of sugar that could be used for ethanol production, and because it would provide leverage for a new farm bill when the current one expires in 2007.

Peterson sees it another way. He accused Coleman of thinking the president is more important than his constituents in Minnesota.

"If this thing (CAFTA) ends up passing in the end, there's one guy to blame and that's Norm Coleman," Peterson said as the crowd booed the senator in absentia.

House vote coming

Peterson said he's warned Kennedy that if he votes for CAFTA he won't be elected to the U.S. Senate. "Anybody that takes this position shouldn't be representing Minnesota in the U.S. Senate," Peterson said.

Peterson said the House Ways and Means Committee has passed DR-CAFTA, but hasn't yet filed its final "report," which would start a clock ticking for a full House vote within 15 legislative days, indicating the administration believes it doesn't yet have the votes.

Meanwhile, Peterson said opponents are "holding their own, and possibly even gaining a little bit," in the projected vote tally.

Paul Rutherford, a third generation farmer from Euclid, Minn., and a member of the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers board of directors, said if trade agreements like CAFTA harm sugar, it will cause a ripple effect as farmers turn to crops like soybeans, corn and wheat, which are already in large supply.

"Our economic lives are at stake," Rutherford said, adding that the economic impact of the region's sugar industry has "seven times the economic impact" of Grand Forks Air Force Base, which officials are trying desperately to save.

"With the precedent CAFTA sets, lost income could send us all into bankruptcy," Rutherford said.

Kragnes said he's seen a copy of a sugar industry memo in which officials of the sugar users - often at odds with producer groups - have even agreed that the Coleman/Johanns deal offers nothing new in sugar protection. He also said it may not be legal in the World Trade Organization and could leave the country open to legal action that could undermine the sugar program.
Pates covers agriculture for the Herald and Agweek. Reach him at mpates@gfherald.com or (701) 297-6869.