American grain shippers applaud U.S.-Dominican Republic FTA

American grain shippers applaud U.S.-Dominican Republic FTA    U.S. grain shippers voiced support of the Bush administration’s successful negotiation of a free-trade agreement with the Dominican Republic and the island country’s integration with the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
   In addition to the Dominican Republic, CAFTA will include the United States, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Congress must now approve the trade agreement to make it effective.
   “By adding the Dominican Republic to CAFTA, the U.S. will have duty-free access to the six Central American countries for more than 2.6 million metric tons of corn immediately upon implementation of the agreement,” said Terry Wolf, chairman of the U.S. Grains Council, in a statement. “In total, that makes for the second-largest feed grain market in Latin America behind Mexico.”
   In recent years, the Dominican Republic has become an important market for U.S. feed grains with imports of U.S. corn increasing to more than 1 million metric tons a year. The United States has a 100-percent share of this overseas market.
   Under the agreement, duty-free access under tariff-rate quotas will be established for U.S. beef, pork, poultry and dairy products. The two countries have agreed to resolve sanitary and phytosanitary differences for agricultural trade, especially problems and delays associated with food inspections for meat and poultry.
   Previously, the United States did not shipped pork to the Dominican Republic because the country would not issue import licenses. “Now the Dominican Republic has made a commitment to eliminate all non-trade barriers, including import licensing, therefore enabling the U.S. to trade in pork products,” said Ron Heck, president of the American Soybean Association.
   Other large agricultural commodities to praise the U.S./Dominican Republic free-trade agreement are the National Corn Growers Association and National Grain Sorghum Producers.