By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — With significant progress being reported toward ratification of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Illinois farm organizations are among the nation’s agricultural leaders to voice support.
Illinois Corn Growers Assoc. (ICGA) President Jim Reed released the following statement: “The Colombian market is certainly valuable to Illinois corn farmers since roughly half of the corn grown in our state is exported. The pending ratification of a (FTA) with Colombia means that our access to that market will be equal to that of other nations around the world.

“By removing trade barriers, we can secure the Illinois corn farmer’s position in the effort to provide high quality feed grains while enabling the Colombian people access to corn at a price relative to the world market, rather than prices distorted by politics.”

Illinois is the largest exporter of corn in the United States, at 1.183 billion bushels, according to the ICGA.

“Since Illinois exports the largest percentage of its corn crop of any state, any deal that helps increase exports helps Illinois corn farmers,” Tim Lenz, past president of the ICGA, said. “In 2007-2008 the U.S. exported 114 million bushels (of corn) to Colombia. That fell to 48 million bushels in 2008-2009 and has continued the trend. The reason is that Argentina and Brazil paid just a 7.6 percent duty on their corn exports to Colombia in 2009 and the U.S. paid a 15 percent duty.

“The Colombian FTA would immediately allow about 80 million bushels in, duty-free. At the end of the 12-year phase-in, that number is up to 133.8 million bushels. This agreement would also give the people of Colombia a lower-cost supply of corn to feed their animals. This allows them to raise their standard of living by spending less on food.”

As Illinois corn growers usually produce approximately two billion bushels of corn per year, the 133.8 million projected duty-free bushels entering Colombia by 2023 would represent only about 6.5 percent of Illinois’ total production.
“Not all of the bushels would come from Illinois, but probably more than half would,” said Lenz, a southern Illinois corn producer.

In 2010, the U.S. exported $98 million worth of corn to Colombia despite tariff structures thought prohibitive.

“Corn has traditionally been one of the top-10 export markets,” said National Corn Growers Assoc. President Bart Schott. “This is an important market for U.S. farmers and we do not want to watch this market slip away to our largest competitors. America’s corn producers stand ready to produce enough corn to meet the increasing global demands for food, feed, fuel and fiber.

“We support the pending FTA with Colombia, as well as those with Korea and Panama. NCGA remains committed to the development and maintenance of fair and open global trade policies, and we look forward to working with Congress to ensure passage of these important FTAs.”