BISMARCK-- A Case IH tractor built in Fargo has a $15,500 tariff when it is sold to a buyer in Colombia, Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said Wednesday, explaining why he wants Congress to give final approval to free trade agreements with Colombia, Peru and Panama.
Schafer said North Dakota and U.S. agriculture producers also are charged tariffs of 10 percent to 35 percent on the product they sell to Colombia. Meanwhile, he said, Colombia is shipping its products to the U.S. with no tariffs.
Schafer spoke to attendees at the Governor's Rural Community Summit in Bismarck Wednesday morning, also stressing the need for better broadband Internet service in rural areas.
He said 40 percent of the U.S.'s gross domestic product in 2007 came from exports and fully half of North Dakota's agriculture products are sold internationally. Agriculture is the only sector in the U.S. economy with a positive balance of trade, he said.
The USDA was one of the main sponsors of the rural summit. Schafer also visited Fort Yates Wednesday, where the USDA is developing a local business incubator service.
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Schafer told the group in Bismarck that the USDA is working on several areas that involve basic services that benefit rural areas. The agency is working to help ethanol producers make the jump from research to commercial scale production of cellulosic ethanol or more efficient processing of corn into ethanol.
The U.S. is 17th in the world in penetration of broadband service, he said, in part because rural Internet service providers don't have the bandwidth. He said loans to cooperatives to build broadband services needs to progress out of the old model based on development of rural telephone service. Broadband service needs more capital up front to expand, he said.
Schafer said the agency is busy clearing a backlog of water development projects, recently rewarding $550 million nationwide, which included $5 million in loans to North Dakota towns like Carrington, Kulm and Gardner. The funds come from the new farm bill, he said.
Cole reports for Forum Communications Co., which owns the Herald.
