Ninety-nine percent of voting R-CALF USA members

[HAY MAKER]

Billings, Mont. – Ninety-nine percent of voting R-CALF USA members – through a mail-in ballot – approved a new trade resolution, which becomes organizational policy immediately.



The new policy states: “WHEREAS: 1) The United States’ trade deficit has been escalating in recent years to almost three-quarters of a trillion dollars per year; 2) We are competing with countries that utilize a value-added tax to rebate their exporters and penalize importers; 3) Our cumulative current account deficit is approaching $6 trillion; THEREFORE, R-CALF USA demands Congress declare a moratorium on new trade agreements until a top-to-bottom review has been completed on existing trade agreements to include a report on actual versus promised results from those trade agreements.”



R-CALF USA Region VII Director/Trade Committee Co-Chair Eric Nelson said he wants to review the real impacts that previous free trade agreements (FTAs) have had on independent U.S. cattle producers.



“R-CALF looks forward to negotiating terms important to independent U.S. cattle producers in future FTAs, but we also want to scrutinize existing trade agreements to find out if they’ve had the favorable outcomes for cattle producers that the agreements were purported to have when they were being negotiated,” he said.



“The U.S. cattle industry really needs Congress to take a step back now to really analyze these agreements to compare what the proponents were promising when various FTAs were authorized, versus where we actually are today,” Nelson continued. “If these agreements are not benefiting domestic cattle producers, we need to ask Congress and the USTR (U.S. Trade Representative) why these agreements should even be allowed to continue.”