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The American Farm Bureau Federation’s (AFBF) board of directors has voted to support the proposed Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). And it has voted conditional support for the proposed U.S. – Australia Free Trade Agreement.

Regarding CAFTA, AFBF leaders cited an overwhelming potential for all of American agriculture to reap export benefits. According to an AFBF economic analysis, when ratified and fully implemented, CAFTA is projected to result in nearly $900 million in increased U.S. agricultural exports. Projected gains in all other commodity areas AFBF studied more than make up for a loss likely to be experienced by the U.S. sugar industry.

"Our analysis shows a strong gain for the whole of American agriculture," said AFBF President Bob Stallman. "To a large extent, U.S. agriculture has already put in place the reforms needed for our farmers and ranchers to benefit from this agreement. We paid that price when the existing Caribbean Basin Initiative was implemented in the early 1980s." That is why most U.S. agricultural commodities have much to gain due to the complete elimination of all tariffs under CAFTA, he said. "CAFTA will give U.S. agricultural export a significant competitive advantage over agricultural exports to CAFTA nations from South America, the EU (European Union) and Canada," Stallman said.

AFBF’s support for the Australian agreement came with a qualifier. The AFBF board stated the organization would not support a congressional vote on the measure until sanitary and phytosanitary issues are addressed by Australia and are acceptable to AFBF.

The board's decision was largely based on economic analysis conducted by AFBF that shows the elimination of tariffs and progress in the area of regulations governing animal and plant health issues would result in gains in semi-processed, processed and unprocessed high-value products.

The analysis concluded that U.S. commodities such as pork, poultry, Florida citrus, stone fruit and apples would benefit from a satisfactory streamlining of Australia’s import rules. "The extent to which a free trade agreement with Australia will benefit U.S. agriculture will depend on Australia's continued progress to reform their key trade rules," Stallman said. "Farm Bureau's support at this juncture is conditional as we continue to see real and timely progress by Australia."

AFBF's analysis of the proposed free trade agreement forecasts that annual exports of high-value U.S. food products to Australia will grow by $150 million to $200 million after that nation removes nontariff trade barriers, particularly in the area of sanitary/phytosanitary rules. While AFBF expects gains and losses to U.S. agriculture will largely offset each other, the organization said the agreement strikes a positive note in that it helps set the tone for future trade talks by demonstrating that two developed nations continue to pursue progress in the free trade arena.

"This agreement is important to two allies in their efforts to press for global farm trade reform through the WTO process," Stallman said.