United States Will Continue Full Effort on Farm Exports

United States Will Continue Full Effort on Farm Exports

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington - U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the United States will continue intensive promotion of its agricultural products around the world.

Vilsack said that in the first quarter of the U.S. fiscal year 2011, U.S. farm exports "were the highest that they have ever been," and well on the way to a record based on a forecast from the department.

"We are very focused on exports, and we are doing it in a very strategic way," Vilsack said at the 2011 Agricultural Outlook Forum February 24.

In addition, Vilsack said the Obama administration is planning an "aggressive effort this spring to ensure that Congress takes quick action on passing the Korean Free Trade Agreement." Expanding free-trade agreements means greater exports for U.S. goods and services, he added, and it also means more U.S. jobs.

Every billion dollars in U.S. farm trade generates between 8,000 and 9,000 jobs in the farm sector, and when the United States produces more than $135 billion worth of export trade, that translates into hundreds of thousands of workers employed in the off-the-farm economy, Vilsack said.

One of the sticking points between the United States and South Korea over a free-trade agreement has been that farm products sold in South Korea face "serious and significant tariffs, and this agreement will, over a period of time, eliminate most, if not all, of those tariffs," Vilsack said. It could expand access for American products in South Korea by $1.8 billion annually, he added.

A South Korea free-trade pact also could increase attention on similar bilateral trade agreements with Colombia and Panama, which also are pending in Congress, Vilsack said.

These free-trade agreements and the Trans-Pacific Partnership ( http://www.america.gov/st/business-english/2010/July/20100702115824ihecuor0.9951985.html ) are part of a broader plan by President Obama to promote his National Export Initiative ( http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2010/March/20100312151930xjsnommis1.054019e-02.html ). The initiative, over five years, will move the United States to a more balanced economy that is based equally on export trade and consumer-driven trade, Vilsack said.

"This is an enormously important thing that has to be done, and despite the challenges, despite the issues relative to supplies ... it's very, very important for us, particularly for our livestock industry, that we continue to promote these free-trade agreements," Vilsack told the forum.

The Agriculture Department's chief economist, Joseph Glauber, told the annual conference that farm trade is expected to hit record levels during 2011, driven by sharply higher values for grains, soybean and cotton.

Fiscal 2011 agricultural exports are forecast at a record $135.5 billion, up $9 billion from an earlier forecast and $26.8 billion above 2010, Glauber said. Exports are expected to exceed the previous record set in 2008 by an estimated $20.6 billion.

Glauber told the forum that U.S. farm imports are also expected to grow in fiscal 2011, which began October 1, 2010, and ends September 30. During the year, agriculture imports are forecast to rise by $2.5 billion to a record $88 billion.

"Nearly half of imports are horticultural products while another 25 percent are sugar and tropical products such as cocoa, coffee and rubber," Glauber said.

The biggest market for U.S. agricultural exports in 2011 is China at approximately $20 billion, which will surpass Canada at $18.5 billion, he added.

"China is a major importer for a number of commodities, accounting for almost 60 percent of world soybean imports, 40 percent of world cotton imports and about 20 percent of total soybean oil imports," Glauber said. "These three commodities accounted for about three-quarters of total U.S. agricultural exports to China last year."

ENDS

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