Soybean shippers wary of South American competition

Soybean shippers wary of South American competition    A group of soybean shippers asked senate lawmakers to increase funding for modernizing the nation’s river transport system and improve foreign-market access to compete with South American countries.
   “How we all decide to address this challenge will affect the profitability and prosperity of our national agricultural economy, and the overall U.S. economy, for years to come,” said Bart Ruth, chairman of the American Soybean Association to the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere May 20.
   ASA said it has “strongly supported” increasing international trade by “reducing tariffs and eliminating other trade barriers to increase access and encourage demand” for U.S. soy products abroad.
   The group urged the senate committee to create legislation authorizing and appropriating funds for lock modernization and extensions on the Mississippi and Illinois waterways, which are responsible for the transporting 75 percent of all U.S. soybean exports.
   Ruth also asked the senate committee to investigate various policies and subsidies, especially in Brazil, and “formulate appropriate U.S. policies and trade negotiating objectives.”