• National Grange President Ed Luttrell Stresses Telecommunications Reform
• Local Grange Public Policy Ideas Could Win Money and Recognition
• National Master Ed Luttrell Declares April 2009 as Grange Month
• National Grange Support U.S. Efforts to Negotiate in Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership
• Grange Invited to Address Broadband Definition at Public Hearing
• Grange Supports Continuation of the Market Access Program
• Legislative Round-Up

The National Grange along with representatives of the vast majority of America’s manufacturing, agricultural, and services sectors, recently wrote to President Obama to communicate strong support of U.S. efforts to join the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (more simply known as the TPP) negotiations. The negotiations present the opportunity to create a new type of trade agreement that will facilitate trade and investment, promote the interests of the participating countries in the areas of intellectual property rights, lower technical barriers to trade, reduce sanitary and philosanitary barriers to trade, provide improved transparency in trade regulations, and create opportunities for U.S. consumers.

Although the President has made it clear that his administration will attach a high priority to enforcing existing trade agreements, the group believes unless the United States continues to pursue its leadership role in trade negotiations, these enforcement efforts will not achieve the benefits for U.S. trade interests that might otherwise be expected. This is so because U.S. trading partners, particularly those in the Asia-Pacific area, have been negotiating bilateral and regional trade deals that will put U.S. products at a debilitating competitive disadvantage around the world.

U.S. exports have been making significant contributions to our GDP in recent months. Between the second quarter of 2007 and the second quarter of 2008, trade accounted for almost 60 percent of U.S. GDP growth. But these contributions will not be sustained if the U.S. turns its back on opportunities to negotiate lower foreign tariffs .

The Coalition told President Obama that by joining a high-standard TPP, the United States would demonstrate its intention to remain engaged in the Asia-Pacific region and to steer efforts to liberalize trade in the region toward market expansion, not discrimination. The group also urged the President to support comprehensive arrangements that include high quality provisions on intellectual property and investment protection, competition, and e-commerce and other key issues. The Coalition concluded by urging the President to proceed with negotiations toward U.S. membership in the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership.

Experts and citizens including National Grange Legislative Director Leroy Watson debated the definition of broadband at a public roundtable discussion to help determine what projects receive federal funding under stimulus spending. The discussion was the fourth public hearing by the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service on how to spend $7.2 billion in broadband deployment grants and loans.

Legislative Director Watson said the crisis of definition won’t be wished away, and that both short and long-term broadband deployment goals in un-served rural areas must be taken into account when defining “broadband” for the purpose of eligibility for the new grants and loans to deploy broadband in rural areas. “There will be various technical issues to be ironed out. Active and passive applications on the web should be supported, including interactions with third-party payers, like insurance companies, government agencies and other businesses that need a cost effective way to reach rural consumers” he said. “The United States,” he added, “is a large continental nation and broadband is just be one of the many steps required to meet the needs of neglected rural peoples and areas in the context of the country’s 200 year history.”

Other roundtable participants believed the definition of broadband should be centered on speeds and how broadband can serve as a means of communication. Still others said the broadband definition should center on understanding what the service is, acceptable network infrastructure, and a series of metrics by which to measure both. Another point of view was that broadband should be defined as a service, which allows users to access the world’s resources and its inhabitants without encumbrances.

During the public comment phase, the audience expressed concern over the tension between market forces and the public interest, about eligibility guidelines, and about the viability of relying on market forces in view of recent economic setbacks. They also raised issues about the broadband stimulus funds pitting rural and urban areas, about broadband reliability, redundancy, and security in the context of public safety.

The Market Access Program (MAP), formerly known as the Targeted Export Assistance (TEA) Program, was created in the 1985 Farm Bill. MAP is administered by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). It uses funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to aid in the creation, expansion, and maintenance of foreign markets for U.S. agricultural products by forming partnerships between non-profit U.S. agricultural trade associations, farmer cooperatives, non-profit state-regional trade groups, small businesses, and USDA. These partnerships share the costs of overseas marketing and promotional activities such as consumer promotions, market research, trade shows, and trade servicing. The Obama Administration’s proposed budget for 2010 substantially reduces funding for MAP and other agriculture export programs. Under the Administration’s proposal, MAP would be dramatically reduced from the existing level of $200 million annually to $196 million in 2010, $166 million in 2011, and $160 million annually after that. The National Grange, working with the Coalition to Promote U.S. Agricultural Exports, strongly urged the Administration and Congress to maintain funding for MAP and other successful agriculture export promotion programs, at the existing level as authorized by the 2008 Farm Bill.

MAP helps boost U.S. agricultural exports. In 2009, USDA predicts that U.S. agriculture exports are projected to be $95.5 billion, down $20 billion from last year’s record level but still up over $33 billion since 2004. U.S. Agriculture’s trade surplus is also projected to be about $13 billion in 2009, down from $23 billion last year. However, agriculture is one of the few sectors of the American economy to enjoy a trade surplus, and without it the overall U.S. trade deficit would be even worse. Since MAP was created in 1985, U.S. agricultural exports have increased by roughly 224 percent. As the current outlook for the global economy continues to weaken, demand for all agricultural products is eroding. This reinforces the need for valuable programs, such as MAP, that help create, expand, and maintain foreign markets for U.S. agricultural products.

“MAP and other similar federally funded foreign market development programs are among the most cost effective and efficient economic development programs that serve family farmers and ranchers,” said National Grange Legislative Director Leroy Watson. “By working almost exclusively with small businesses, farmer cooperatives and non-profit organizations, MAP helps open world markets to all U.S. produced agriculture products that are grown or produced by any family farmers and ranchers who want to sell their products to expanding markets across the globe. As family farmers face tougher economic times, the national Grange strongly believes that programs like MAP need to be sustained or expanded and not reduced,” concluded Watson.