Ag Committee Member Congressman Huelskamp Lauds Progress on Free Trade Agreements

Press Release

On Thursday, the House Committee on Agriculture held a hearing on three pending U.S. trade agreements with Panama, Colombia, and Korea. Combined, the three trade agreements are expected to add more than $2.5 billion to U.S. agriculture exports and more than $130 million annually to Kansas exports. Multiple sectors of the Kansas agriculture industry are expected to benefit from these trade agreements as a result of lifted and phased-out tariffs on beef, feed grains, wheat, soybeans and products, and pork.

Congressman Tim Huelskamp -- who represents the First District of Kansas, is a fifth-generation farmer, and is a member of the Agriculture Committee -- issued the following remarks after the hearing.

"These three free trade agreements present considerable opportunities for Kansas to sell its goods in the global marketplace," Congressman Huelskamp said. "The prospect of millions of dollars in new sales and more than a thousand new jobs will provide a great boost to Kansas industries and the state's economy. It is my hope that these agreements will be finalized quickly, because days gone by equal sales opportunities missed."

President Bush signed these trade agreements in 2006 and 2007, but the Democratically-controlled Congress did not ratify the agreements. For every year that these agreements have not been enacted, the U.S. has missed out on $2.5 billion, amounting to $10 billion over the past four years.

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