Republicans want sugar fix in CAFTA fight

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. sugar industry needs a longer-term solution to problems caused by a free trade agreement with Central American than the Bush administration has proposed, Republican lawmakers said on Monday.

"The administration made a very good offer. I do not dispute that," Sen. Larry Craig (news, bio, voting record), an Idaho Republican, told reporters after a meeting between Republicans from sugar states such as Florida, Montana and Wyoming and top Bush administration officials, including U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman (news, bio, voting record).

But the plan to keep overall imports below a key farm program threshold level of 1.532 million short tons by paying countries cash or commodities not to export sugar to the United States only covers the remaining two and a half years of the current farm bill, Craig said.

Sugar farmers who take on heavy debt loads to run their operation need a longer-term commitment than that, he said.

The $100 million to $300 million annual cost of the administration's proposal also could create "a very negative environment" for the sugar program in the 2007 farm bill debate, unless there is some agreement now on a longer-term plan for the sugar industry, Craig said.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050628/pl_nm/trade_sugar_cafta_dc_1

[mom cat]

1. Republicans split on free trade... isn't it sweet.

[The Sushi Bandit]

2. Sugar needs to be protected on Maui...or we are all *ucked

it's important to our economy