Farmers gear up for unexpected boom after new free trade pacts
< 1 minute read
With the fall apple harvest winding down in Washington state, growers would normally be scaling back jobs, but not this year. Three new free trade agreements passed by Congress and signed by President Obama have farmers gearing up for a bumper crop of new business.
“We can compete with these other countries,” Mike Hambelton of Columbia Marketing International, said.
The pacts with South Korea, Colombia and Panama remove duties on two-thirds of American farm exports and phase out tariffs on 95 percent of the nation’s manufactured goods over the next five years. Administration officials say the agreements could boost exports by $13 billion and support tens of thousands of American jobs. Fox News
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