Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 29

Star-Tribune, Casper. 05 Free Trade: Its Effect In America Ag, mineral producers TOT 4 'MM Ml tiiit1 eye pact's tm a 6 Sunday, November 14, 1993 1 CKOA It i A) dL Mil I 0 I By NADIA WHITE and the Star-Tribune staff CASPER Despite the fact that protection of Wyoming's largest cash crop sugar beets has required a last-minute, high-level struggle, spokesmen for Wyoming's agriculture industries generally think NAFTA will serve the state well. "The potential is in the NAFTA agreement for big benefits to agriculture," said Tom Trowbridge, Acting State Executive Director of the Wyoming State Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service. pinpoint the financial reward to Wyoming is most difficult. We know for sure that building markets is usually one customer at a time," and under NAFTA the customers are Canada, the United States, and Mexico, he said in written statement.

"In as much as Wyoming is a net exporter, and we export way more than we import, this will be a real positive agreement for Wyoming agriculture," he said. Blessing for minerals industries to The strength of Mexico's economy depends largely on its northern neighbor's health, as drivers in Matamoros, Mexico, on their way Brownsville, Texas, read in the newspaper headline: 'The Peso Shaken in the U.S.' The coal and petroleum industries in Wyoming and nationally say NAFTA will mean increased exports of Wyoming's energy products to Mexico. Z7 American sugar producers, who now enjoy tariff protection, feared that Mexicans would use corn syrup as a sweetener at home, especially for soft drinks, and export more sugar to become a net exporter. Bean market due to open to the Wyoming Farm Bureau, Dry beans exports for the United States could double current levels alter the 15-year phase out of quota and tariffs which would mean a $15 million gain for dry bean producers. Most of Wyoming's dry beans arc, grown in Powell and the Big Horn Basin.

Livestock likely to benefit and gas-related technology and production equipment to be sold to Mexico, LeGates said in a letter to members of Congress last month. Mexico is currently a net exporter of oil, and likely will remain one under NAFTA, industry representatives say. The sales of Canadian natural gas into the United States will not be affected by NAFTA, because tariffs on gas between the United States and Canada were eliminated under a previous trade pact, LeGates said. Good news for soda ash orem taxes "are reduced to zero" by NAFTA, that purchases of Wyoming soda ash will increase. But he also said it is "generally understood" that the NAFTA agreement will reduce the demand for soda ash among glass manufacturers in the United States.

Glass accounts for nearly half of U.S. domestic consumption of soda ash. "If the price (for soda ash) decreases in Mexico, then the advantage they seem to have on flat glass production may increase," Aitala speculated. "We may export more soda ash to Mexico, but they will export more glass to us." Bittersweet for sugar beets rt Dry beans are a subsistence crop in Mexico and are grown in abundance there. But in years when production is down they import 3 Mexican beet tariffs-as high as 25 percent are scheduled to be completely removed in five years, according to a written statement Mexican use of U.S.

ash is already on the beans from the U.S. That relationship has been tightly controlled by Mexican tariffs and quotas. But NAFTA would phase those controls out over 15 years. That move could double current U.S. dry bean exports for a $15 million national gain for bean producers, according to an increase, industry ex- perts said.

That would be good V9 Sugar beets Wyoming's largest cash crop were protected under an 1 lth-hour side agreement to NAFTA. But the threat of imported Mexican sugar and corn syrup still raises the ire of some in the industry. The treaty will eliminate a 10 percent tariff on coal entering Mexico, the president of the National Coal Association said this week. Last year, the U.S. coal industry exported 1 million tons of coal to Mexico, said NCA president Richard Lawson.

With NAFTA and the elimination of the tariff, the industry expects U.S. exports to grow to 20 million tons by the end of the decade, Lawson said. The NCA hasn't projected how much of that coal shipped to Mexico would be low-sulfur coal from Wyoming, he said. But Wyoming already ships coal to Texas, and there are rail lines from Texas into Mexico, so Wyoming would have at least as good an opportunity to take advantage of the growing Mexican coal market as would Midwestern and East-Cm producers, Lawson said. The petroleum industry likewise is strongly behind NAFTA, although there are still some questions regarding tariff reductions, a spokeswoman for the Natural Gas Supply Association said.

Lawyers are still trying to determine if a 10 percent tariff on gas flowing into Mexico will be eliminated under the pact, Said NCSA's Charlotte LeGates. But the tariff itself is not that much of a concern to the industry, she said. PE-MEX, Mexico's national petroleum company, currently purchases gas in the United States and ships it to Mexico without paying the tariff. Under NAFTA, gas companies will be able to make their own deals with Mexican power plants and other purchasers, with PEMEX approval, she said. from Tom Trowbridge," acting state executive director of the Wyoming State Agricultural Stabiliza-i tion and Conservation Serv ice.

"We will stand to gain from these irv dustries as the result of NAFTA." he said Cattle exports from the U.S. in 1992 to-: tailed 224,800, 7,200 breeding cows, and 17,600 registered females. Exported slaughter cattle and all others totalled 200.000, Trowbridge said. Chilled and boxed ready-to-serve beef is a popular item in the United States and Trowbridge said he thinks it will be. in, Mexico as well.

The United States currently pays Mexico a 25 percent tariff ou that product, 20 percent on beef hales, and 1 5 percent on live cattle. Under the NAFTA agreement all tariffs would be lifted within five years, he said, Trowbridge was also optimistic thai Wyoming's sheep industry would also benefit from NAFTA. Last year the United States exported 815,000 sheep, mostly older ewes, to Mexico. Trowbridge said sheep are sold through sale barns, so determining the slate of origin is difficult. But, he said, "as the economy increases there will be more demand for sheep in that country." Star-Tribune staff writers Hugh Jackson, Katharine Collins, Michael Riley anil David llackett contributed to this report.

news for Wyoming. Ninety percent of soda ash produced in the United States comes from the natural sodium deposits in the form of underground trona ore beds in Green River. Soda ash is used in the production of glass. In 1992, a record 3 million metric tons of the 9.4 million metric tons produced was exported. Mexico imported 161,723 tons in 1992, or about 5.5 percent of all U.S.

soda ash exports. But figures supplied by the U.S. Bureau of Mines through July 1 993 indicate exports of soda ash from the United States to Mexico are up 8 percent this year. Industry observers earlier said that the increase is partly due to the closure of a soda ash processing plant near Mexico City that was producing about 150,000 metric tons annually. The remaining soda ash producers in Mexico all use a costly synthetic process for producing soda ash.

As tariffs are lowered, synthetic producers will find it increasingly difficult to compete with low-cost Green River soda ash, observers say. Roger Aitala, an Austin-based consultant to the soda ash industry, said he thinks there is no doubt that as Mexico's ad val Wyoming's exports to Mexico, 1987-91 5- I4" B3-w i2: 1 ft" fcaaaafl to 73 5 a i 2 Still, Wyoming's Congressional delegation praised the side-letter. Sen. Al Simpson, said last week, "This agreement removes what was felt to be a very major obstacle to the passage of NAFTA." The new sugar and sweetener provisions will limit Mexico to exports of 25,000 metric tons of sugar to the United States in the first six years of the agreement. The delegation says the new agreement establishes a 250,000 metric ton limit on the "duty-free" quantity of sugar and syrup goods in the seventh through 15th years of the trade pact, instead of as much as 330,000, which was originally negotiated.

The sugar agreement also would count corn syrup as sugar in determining whether Mexico was a net exporter of sugar. Under the trade accord, Mexican sugar would be subject to United States tariffs unless Mexico became such a net exporter. ll is uiiviwui wiiuibi 1111, i yj pVlbVIH tariff would apply, she said. "We're going to sell it to them when they need it, come what may," she said. NAFTA will also liberalize the Mexican government's energy procurement program, and will allow far more U.S.

oil Wyoming political players take unexpected sides on trade issue Perot's supporters team with environmentalists; Sullivan sides with GOP By JOAN BARRON Star-Tribune capital bureau CHEYENNE NAFTA has drawn together an unusual alignment of supporters and opponents who have diverse opinions on how the treaty will affect Wyoming. iog yes: Lined up on the pro-treaty side are Democratic Gov. Mike Sullivan and Wyoming's all-Republican congressional delegation. there that can get sticky," Hendren said. Liz Howell of Sheridan, conservation assistant for the Wyoming chapter of the Sierra Club, said Thursday her group this version of NAFTA but believes the flaws in the agreement can be worked out.

The main flaw, she said, is too little money to clean up pollution along the Mexican border, much of it caused by U.S. companies that located there because of Mexico's lax environmental laws. The agreement allows $7.4 billion for the cleanup, while the Sierra Club estimates the cost of cleaning up abandoned toxic dumps, poisoned water and air pollution at $21 billion, Howell said. Howell said she doubts if NAFTA will affect jobs in Wyoming one way or the other. The Wyoming Wildlife Federation board has not taken a position because officials haven't had time to study the agreement, WWF Director June Rain said Thursday.

Rain said NAFTA came up at a time when the board was involved with federal grazing fee reform and reintroduction of the wolf to Yellowston Park. The National Wildlife Federation supports the treaty, however, she said. Bovines and mines Hendren, the Perot operative, ticked off a long list of potential bad effects on Wyoming if NAF- Another threat, he said, is thct spread of bovine tuberculosis. AI- though Mexico has a testing pro-j gram for bovine tuberculosis, en-i forcement is lax, he said. Still another worry, he said, isj that the temporary worker clause; in the treaty will allow Mexican! contractors to bring in Mexican; miners to work in Wyoming's coal or trona mines at lower wages than! Wyoming miners.

The treaty also will allow the' unrestricted entry of Mexican pro-! fessionals, including nurses, doctors and architects, who; will displace U.S. and Wyoming' workers, he said. The treaty has other he said, including the provision' that U.S. citizens can't drive trucks! into Mexico for three years or cll; used cars in Mexico for 25 The NAFTA negotiators "sold! us out," Hendren said. "1 guess it's the potential that scares you more than he said.

The organization's opposition; to NAFTA does not signal aft alignment ith organized laborVr! any other organization taking the; same position, he said. "We're a bipartisan We're for the education of the ot ers. We don't care who the itci is. We just want the government be back in control of the people." Hendren said. "But I really believe that we're in an economy now that's not going to stop at the border," the governor said.

"We can't afford to have a weak country on our southern borders." Mexico's depressed economy contributes to illegal immigration, a lack of U.S. imports and political instability, he said. Unions warn of job losses John Faunce, the executive director of the Wyoming AFL-CIO, said Wyoming would lose in the long term about 3,500 primary jobs in a worst case scenario. The loss figure may be lower now because of a "side-agreement" for sugar and citrus producing states negotiated by the Clinton administration, he said. The side agreement reached on sugar demonstrates that the treaty is flawed, he said.

"I think it's interesting that they accused organized labor of using strong-arm tactics because of what we were in doing our lobby effort," Faunce said. "That's like the pot calling the kettle black." Faunce said the job loss from NAFTA in Wyoming will be primarily in agriculture, including the sugar beet, sheep and beef growing sectors. But truck dri ving jobs and perhaps some railroad jobs as well will be lost because of the treaty, ganization, "United We Stand" is in-the same camp with organized labor and 300 national grass roots environmental organizations. Lined up on the pro-treaty side are Democratic Gov. Mike Sullivan and Wyoming's all-Republican congressional delegation.

"It's a strange set of bedfellows," Sullivan said Thursday. He said he agrees with President Bill Clinton, who has deplored the threats of Perot and organized labor to attempt to oust from office members of Congress who vote for NAFTA. Sullivan publicly announced his support for NAFTA during the Wyoming State AFL-CIO convention in Casper a couple of months ago. "It was clear then that they don't agree and I knew when I announced that position that it was not their position," he said. Sullivan said NAFTA will have an impact on Wyoming agriculture, notably on sugar.

He noted that Wyoming labor is concerned about job losses to Mexico. he said. Both Faunce and Buck Hen-dren, the NAFTA task force coordinator for Perot's organization, said loss of state sovereignty is the single largest threat to the state from the agreement. "Some people have called it a hunting license for state laws," Faunce said. Triple trailers, toxic dumps Hendren, who also is communications chairman for United We Stand in Wyoming, said that state laws, such as the ban on triple trailers, could go by the wayside if they were interpreted to pose a barrier to trade.

So could Wyoming's standards for truck drivers, he added. Mexican citizens can get commercial vehicle drivers' licenses at age 1 8 and their truck-tractors do not have to be equipped with front brakes, contrary to Wyoming Department of Transportation requirements, he said. "There are a lot of things in 7 think it's intetvsting that they accused organized labor of using strong-arm tactics because of what we weiv in doing our lobby effort John Faunce, director of Wyoming AFL-CIO TA is endorsed by Congress. The possible negatives includes a drop in Wyoming wheat, beef and sugar sales and the introduction of fruits and vegetables from Mexico that are contaminated with pesticides banned in this country. "We're not saying, 'Kill We're saying, 'Not this Howell said.

"We think there's room for re-negotiation so we can take away those glaring flaws of environmental protection.".