GROUP SUPPORTS NAFTA

The Missouri Farm Bureau and more than a dozen other state organizations have teamed up to form a "Pro-NAFTA" coalition to promote the benefits of the proposed trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

"We feel that many Missouri farm products are a good fit for Mexico," said Charles Kruse, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau. Kruse was in Cape Girardeau Thursday afternoon.

"Mexico wants our livestock, cotton, dairy products, corn, wheat and rice," said Kruse. "Even with the present agricultural tariff of 16.5 percent, we send a lot of these things to Mexico."

Kruse and Terry Buker, director of public relations and information for the bureau, are touring the state, visiting with Farm Bureau members. They were in Dexter Thursday night.

The North American Free Trade Agreement, known as NAFTA, would gradually eliminate most tariffs and other barriers to free movement of goods and services between the three countries, creating the world's biggest and richest trade zone.

The agreement, said Kruse, would result in an increase of $45 million to $60 million annually in Missouri agriculture exports and another $50 million to $60 million in other products.

Kruse and business leaders representing the Farm Bureau -- Mid-America Dairymen, MFA Inc., Missouri Ag Industries and the Missouri Chamber of Commerce -- were in Washington, D.C., recently to drum up support for the trade agreement.

"We have a story to tell and we want the state's congressional delegation to know how we feel," said Kruse. "Counting members of all organizations in our Pro-NAFTA coalition, we represent well over a quarter-million people."

Kruse said the newly formed coalition is concerned that scare tactics and an aggressive "mis-information campaign" by NAFTA opponents has unjustifiably influenced public opinion on the issue.

"NAFTA will increase opportunities for Missouri and other U.S. firms to sell to Mexico without the need to move plants there," he said. "Both NAFTA and its side agreements provide greater protection for the environment than if NAFTA is rejected.

"This is an era of global economy," he said. "I think we would be doing all the wrong things by building walls between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. I just think that NAFTA will be a great opportunity for the U.S."

Both Missouri senators, Republicans Christopher "Kit" Bond and John Danforth, have indicated they will support the bill. Illinois Democratic senators Carol Moseley-Braun and Paul Simon each announced this week that they support the agreement. Both Illinois senators previously were undecided.

The pact is opposed by many congressmen and U.S. labor unions on grounds it would give U.S. companies new incentives to move jobs to Mexico in search of low wages.

"We disagree with this thinking," said Kruse. "We feel it will create jobs by opening Mexican markets to more U.S. goods."

In a separate matter, Kruse said agricultural leaders are urging their congressmen to push for reversal of a Corps of Engineers policy that prevents many levee districts from building high-quality levees.

"Under a directive from the Corps, only levees enrolled in the Corps' program before the flood are eligible for federal assistance from the Corps," said Kruse. "This policy change came after many landowners were told that many non-federal levees would be eligible for levee rehabilitation assistance."

A letter signed by Bond and Danforth and Missouri congressmen Pat Danner, Bill Emerson, Ike Shelton, Harold Volkmer and Alan Wheat was recently sent to President Bill Clinton, urging a reversal of the policy.

"The Farm Bureau supports building damaged levees to pre-flood conditions," said Kruse.