California grower Michael Rue (third from right) braves the bright lights at Senate trade hearing.

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Senate Finance Committee, Subcommittee on Trade held a hearing yesterday on the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS): Lessons Learned Two Years Later.  Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) cautioned, "We hope that future agreements will not cause any commodity to be excluded."  Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) echoed that sentiment saying, "Exclusion was a mistake and we hope that future agreements won't repeat that mistake."

Vice Chairman of the USA Rice Federation International Trade Policy Committee and California producer Michael Rue testified before the subcommittee.  In discussing the rice industry perspective of the Korea FTA, Rue said, "For the U.S. rice industry, this is the key lesson learned from KORUS - product exclusions have no place in U.S. trade policy.  Not only do they deny access improvements for U.S agriculture, they poison the water for future trade agreements as other countries with politically sensitive commodities seek to gain similar exemptions."

Rue also mentioned the ongoing Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations and specifically, the talks over access to agriculture goods and autos with Japan.  He noted, "Japan must show substantially more flexibility before we are able to accept what is on the table for U.S. rice.  If Japan cannot move forward on market access on the sensitive commodities at this time, then the other TPP partners should move forward without Japan."

Illustrating the broad reach of trade agreements and the impact they have on all segments of the economy, the other groups offering testimony were The Ford Motor Company, National Milk Producers Federation, and Qualcomm.

Contact:  Lauren Echols, (703) 236-1440

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