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June 24, 2003 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Curt Mercadante CORN REFINERS LAUD INTRODUCTION OF 'SPECIAL 301' BILL FOR AGRICULTURE Ongoing Sweetener Dispute 'Poster Child Issue' Showing Need For Bill's Focus on Enforcing Existing Trade Agreements WASHINGTON, DC - The Corn Refiners Association, Inc. (CRA) today joined Senate Finance Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA), Congressman Dave Camp (R-MI), Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) and Congressman Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) in announcing the introduction of the United States Agricultural Products Market Access Act of 2003. "Passage of this Special 301 for Agriculture legislation will ensure that the maximum amount of government resources are devoted to enforcing existing agreements on our exports - U.S. agriculture's number one trade priority," said CRA President Audrae Erickson. "We strongly endorse timely passage of this bill to ensure that agriculture remains at the top of the list as the Administration makes decisions about trade priorities going forward." This bill would move U.S. trade negotiators in the right direction by requiring that they make agriculture, and enforcement of existing agreements, a priority in the nation's international trade relations agenda. Market barriers would be greatly reduced by the bill's requirement that the U.S. Trade Representative annually identify countries that deny market access to U.S. agricultural goods and that they initiate a Section 301 investigation against "priority foreign countries". The bill also would provide the U.S. Trade Representative with the additional resources required to carry out the legislation's obligation. "And chief among the countries that U.S. agriculture will use this legislation against is Mexico," continued Erickson. "Mexico is unilaterally unraveling the NAFTA on several U.S. agricultural exports - with high fructose corn syrup serving as the 'poster child issue.'" Mexico has shut U.S. high fructose corn syrup exports out of its market for 18 months now - an unprecedented outcome for the top export market of a competitive, trade-oriented sector of the U.S. economy. No industry has been harder hit with a trade problem than the corn refining industry has, and it is well past time to get the sweetener dispute resolved. "Mexico is the top export market for a long list of competitive and export- oriented agricultural industries in the United States that are now facing restrictions and market closures," added Erickson. "Mexico must fully re-open its market to our HFCS and other agricultural exports or face the music of what's to come." -30- Click here to view the full text of the legislation. Click here to view CRA's coalition letter to Congressional leaders in support of this legislation. |