07/26/05 Idaho delegation won`t support CAFTA

OTTER "We're getting our head handed to us and the gratitude goes to the president of the United States and the US TR." It's pretty obvious which way Idaho Congressman Butch Otter will vote on the Central America Free Trade Agreement. OTTER "There is no advantage for the United States to sign this agreement and participate in it. The rules and regulations that cover the agreements between us and them is going to end up in the World Bank or the United Nations." Congressman Mike Simpson says a Congressional Budget Office report on CAFTA raises fiscal questions and that already adds to his concerns. According to the CBO, the low sugar prices and oversupply caused by CAFTA would force US sugar farmers to forfeit on sugar loans made by the government. These forfeitures, CBO said, would cost the federal government about $50 million a year. Both Mike Crapo and Larry Craig voted against CAFTA when it passed out of the Senate. Otter says farmers are being promised a lot but like NAFTA, CAFTA won't benefit them. OTTER "With both Mexico and Canada we were running surpluses, major surpluses. We now have a 48 million dollar deficit with Canada in trade." Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott