Soybean shippers offer plan to grow exports

Soybean shippers offer plan to grow exports    The American Soybean Association released a list of key steps for how the Obama administration might meet its goal to double U.S. exports in five years.
   “Soybeans and soybean products are the most important U.S. export commodity, with export sales exceeding $21 billion last year,” said ASA President Rob Joslin, a soybean farmer from Sidney, Ohio, in a statement. “This represented over 50 percent of U.S. soybean production and 21 percent of total U.S. ag exports in 2009. In short, soybean producers are in the vanguard of efforts to improve the U.S. trade balance.”
   ASA believes that achieving the president's National Export Initiative (NEI) goal will require:
   ' Approve pending free trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea, and Panama.
   ' Renew presidential trade promotion authority.
   ' Negotiate new free trade agreements with countries that have the potential to significantly expand imports of U.S. products.
   ' Ensure other countries as well as the United States comply with existing trade agreements.
   ' Remove U.S.-imposed restrictions that hinder food and agricultural sales to Cuba.
   ' Negotiate a balanced and commercially meaningful Doha Round World Trade Organization agreement.
   ' Take action against the use of Differential Export Taxes used by U.S. competitors to effectively subsidize the export of processed products.
   However, ASA believes the most important step to doubling exports is the prompt approval of pending U.S. free trade agreements Colombia, Panama and South Korea. As of June, 186 FTAs have been negotiated and reported to the WTO by other countries. Another 134 agreements are in negotiation, for a total of 320 FTAs in which the United States is not engaged. In contrast, the United States has 17 FTAs in place, three awaiting Congressional approval, and only the Trans-Pacific Partnership currently under negotiation.
   “Clearly, much of the rest of the world is moving forward rapidly to expand bilateral trade while the U.S. is at a virtual standstill,” Joslin said. “This must change quickly if the NEI is to have any chance of success.”
   As a result of delays in approving the pending FTAs, ASA noted that the United States has lost market share in both Colombia and Panama:
   ' In Colombia, a decline in the value of U.S. soybean meal imports of 69.1 percent, from $98.9 million in 2008 to $30.6 million in 2009, was responsible for an overall reduction in U.S. exports of soy and livestock products of 34 percent, from $244.1 million to $161.1 million.
   ' In Panama, U.S. soybean meal imports fell 12.2 percent, from $59 million in 2008 to $51.8 million in 2009, accounting for a 6.9 percent decline in U.S. soy and livestock sales.