By STEVE BINDER
Illinois Correspondent

BOGOTA, Colombia — Southern Illinois farmer John Howard walked along the streets of downtown Bogotá last week. It was his first visit to the South American country and its capital city, and he was aware of violence attached to the country’s drug cartels, so he was a bit concerned.

“It’s not that I thought we’d be in any trouble, but we walked the streets without any problem at all,” said Howard, who farms about 1,200 acres of grain just north of Mt. Vernon in Jefferson County. “I’m sure we probably looked like tourists to everyone, but it was totally safe.”

Howard was one of 18 farming representatives to take part in a seven-day market tour organized by the Illinois Farm Bureau.

Such a peaceful scene is exactly what proponents see if the United States approves free trade agreements (FTAs) with Colombia and Panama, something those two countries already did in 2006 and 2007.

Opponents of the deals, with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) at the top of the list, say Colombia hasn’t done enough to guarantee the country would crack down on violence against union organizers and groups that ignore labor rights.

Without that guarantee, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said last week in Washington, D.C., as President Obama was ready to leave for a Latin American tour, Congress should not approve an FTA with Colombia. He noted 51 union officials were assassinated there in the past year, including two who were in the middle of negotiating an agreement.

Obama and the White House signaled last week before he left for Latin America that he is hopeful of seeing FTAs approved with South Korea, as well as Colombia and Panama, by June.

To Howard and fellow tour participants, including Ron Schoenholz from Lee County, approving trade deals with Colombia and Panama are “no-brainers.”
“When (Obama and lawmakers) tell us that every $1 billion in exports supports at least 9,000 jobs here at home, it sure seems like a no-brainer to us,” Howard explained.
Schoenholz farms about 900 acres, producing livestock feed.

“We need to be able to supply the world with products that we raise, that can benefit their diets and improve their quality of life,” he said. “We are losing market share in Colombia because they are signing other free trade agreements with other countries. They are purchasing grain products from them instead of from us.”

The trip’s goal was to understand what needs to be done at both ends to secure FTAs with the two countries.

Participants also toured the Panama Canal and met with a dozen top government and ag leaders, all of whom told the Illinois group they are eager to do more business with the U.S., said Tamara Nelsen, commodities director for the Farm Bureau.

She noted the U.S. has lost market share to the two countries largely because they have forged other trade deals with competing countries such as Brazil and Argentina. U.S. corn exports to Colombia alone totaled three million tons in 2007. Last year it had dropped to 1 million. U.S. share of Colombia’s total agricultural imports fell from nearly 44 percent in 2007 to 27 percent in 2009, according to the USDA’S Foreign Agricultural Service.

“We consider it a very successful trip because our members were able to see, firsthand, the progress that has been made in Panama and Colombia since the U.S. negotiated FTAs with them five years ago,” Nelsen said. “Moreover, we were able to see Panama’s strong commitment to successful operation of the Panama Canal and that nation’s overwhelming support for further advances in making the investment to handle canal traffic into the future.”

Transportation improvements on the U.S. side also are needed to meet a growing export market, Schoenholz said.

“We have visited with our Congressmen and senators on various occasions about the need and they all understand the need. Funding is the priority that has to be implemented” to upgrade locks and canals on Illinois’ waterways, he said.

Nelsen said the positive welcome was encouraging.

“In Colombia, our farmers got to see a rapidly developing nation that is eager to buy more U.S. products, particularly grain, off-road trucks, food products, computers and many, many other products that Illinois sells,” she said.
“Keep in mind that Colombia already has access to our markets duty-free; this agreement is about U.S. access to their market and getting Colombian union, environmental, health and safety standards up to par with major trading nations.”

Nelsen, Schoenholz, Howard and the Illinois group remain optimistic deals will be struck – the sooner, the better.

“Just looking at the numbers, it sure sounds like we’re shooting ourselves in the foot without any kind of agreement,” Howard said.