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Lack of Colombia FTA hurting U.S. farmers
The lack of progress on the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement is having a devastating impact on U.S. corn, soybean and wheat exports to that South American country.
That’s the word from U.S. Grains Council Latin American director Kurt Schultz. Schultz was in Colombia last week and he says the Colombians are gradually switching their corn imports to South American origins at the expense of U.S. producers. Shultz says the U.S. share of Colombia’s corn market was 96 percent in 2007—it now stands at only 22 percent. Argentina has picked up much of the slack, increasing its Colombian market share from three percent to 67 percent in the past three years. The value of Argentinean corn exports to Colombia has soared to 201 million dollars, while U.S. exports have dwindled to 68 million dollars.
Schultz says the U.S. government needs to ratify the FTA before it’s too late. He says once competitors’ trade patterns and relationships are established, U.S. market penetration will be significantly damaged. And he says it could also result in continued erosion of the U.S. market share in neighboring countries, such as the Dominican Republic, which has imported 80-thousand metric tons of South American corn.
I believe that you must mean COLOMBIA.