Montana Senator Max Baucus played a key role in moving forward three trade pacts on Wednesday. Baucus, once considered to be the key holdout, said he would support a free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea.
The Senator told us that persistence was the key in getting the FTA right.
That “better position” came once Senator Baucus was more comfortable with the fact that there will be a roadmap to get the U.S. full OIE compliance. This means that they would take all cuts of beef, bone-in or bone-out, from any age of animal.
Once the news of Baucus’ approval for the South Korea deal became known, reports started flooding in about Panama and Columbia as well. As it sits now, all three agreements are going to be looked at by Congress as a package deal.
Bill told us this was a good move that will allow for them to be passed more quickly.
Technical discussions were underway as early as Thursday to implement the three pending trade pacts, again with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama. President Obama has said that he wants the agreements to go forward and will sign them.
The South Korea FTA will eliminate the 40{dfeadfe70caf58f453a47791a362966239aaa64624c42b982d70b175f7e3dda2} tariff on beef. Bill says this will make our product much more competitive. Prior to the 2003 BSE finding, South Korea was the #3 export market for U.S. beef.
© Northern Ag Network 2011
Haylie Shipp
