03/25/05 WSPC delivers priorities to D.C.

Farm and Ranch March 25, 2005 While in Washington D.C. for the recent National Potato Council Board of Directors meeting, representatives of the Washington State Potato Commission took the opportunity to meet with key officials to discuss current potato industry concerns and issues. Commission executive director Pat Boss says they met with 14 members of the Washington and Oregon Congressional delegations as well as with officials from the Bureau of Reclamation and the Environmental Protection Agency. Boss: "Talked a lot about transportation. Columbia River Channel deepening. Talked about getting more money for our rail car initiative. There was a lot of talk about BPA and the whole Bush Administration budget proposal to take BPA and make it into a market based entity. That issue came up a lot." The group also asked the Congressional delegations for reinstatement of earmarked potato research projects to the Fiscal Year 2006 federal budget. Boss says a hot trade issue on the Hill during their visit was the Central American Free Trade Agreement, CAFTA. Boss: "Clearly for the potato industry the Central American Free Trade Agreement is a good deal for potatoes because they don't grow many potatoes in Central America. They don't make any French fries down there. So there is not going to be a flood of imports from Central America of potatoes. Our whole point to the delegation was that Canada already has an agreement with the Central America countries and they are getting a lower tariff than we are right now for potatoes so we need to have the agreement or we will not be competitive with Canada." That's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report. Brought to you in part by the Washington State Potato Commission. Nutrition today. Good health tomorrow. I'm Bob Hoff on the Northwest Ag Information Network.