Free Trade Agreements

Floor Speech

Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to be here, and certainly I appreciate my colleague from California talking about agriculture. And it certainly speaks to the diversity of American agriculture when he listed so many products, and I don't think a single one of those that you listed is actually grown in Nebraska, and obviously we produce a lot of agriculture products in Nebraska, and we know what it's like to even produce more than we consume in our State alone. California might be slightly different, but we know that we've got efficient production all across America.

So I want to take just a moment to discuss the impact and benefits of trade agreements to Nebraska and certainly the national economy. As our economy continues to struggle, we should obviously be exploring every avenue to create businesses and create new jobs. Markets around the world present tremendous opportunity because of their size, scope, and rate of growth. And we've heard a lot of numbers tossed around this evening, but we know that beyond the U.S. lies 73 percent of the world's purchasing power, 87 percent of its economic growth, and 95 percent of the world's consumers.

While the national economic impact of trade is very important, the increased marketing opportunity for Nebraska is obviously tremendous as well. For Nebraska, this means the three trade agreements will increase exports by more than $123 million per year. That's every year. Specifically for agriculture, the agreements with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea would lead to gains for Nebraska's major agriculture commodities, including beef, pork, soybeans and corn.

New markets create opportunities for farmers and ranchers along with the food processors, agri-businesses, transportation workers, and all the sales and related professionals who support the agriculture sector.

I want to make sure Nebraska products and producers make the most of opportunities provided by international sales and to increase exports. There's been enough delay. We certainly know that. And our market share in Colombia has already declined because of inaction. The

debate is no longer simply about generating potential export gains, but also how to prevent the loss of existing export markets.

Thank you again. I appreciate this opportunity.

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