Farmers lash out at CAFTA proposal

FARGO, N.D., April 20 (UPI) -- North Dakotan and Minnesotan farmers in Fargo, N.D. on Wednesday bashed the proposed U.S.-Central America trade pact.

The pact, CAFTA, is up for a hearing in the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns is set to visit North Dakota this week to drum up support for the pact.

"Bottom line, this deal is anything but a boon for agriculture, and Congress should reject it immediately," said Steve Williams, a wheat, soybean, and sugarbeet farmer from Fisher, Minnesota, at the press briefing.

"The average Central American makes only dollars a day. Does anyone really think they're going to buy the filet mignons and New York strips that CAFTA allows us to export? If anything, Central American ranchers will send us more beef and drive U.S. ranchers out of business," said North Dakota cattleman Terry Duppong with the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America.

Other regional and national agricultural groups that are opposed to CAFTA include the North Dakota Farm Bureau, the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers; the Minnesota Farmers Union; and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture.