AFBF Will Back Legislation to Mandate FQPA Implementation

January 12, 2000

The American Farm Bureau Federation will support legislation that directs the Environmental Protection Agency to implement the Food Quality Protection Act the way Congress intended. AFBF President Dean Kleckner said EPA appears to be shifting away from science-based risk assessments.

Kleckner told the AFBF 81^st annual meeting in Houston, "The EPA appears to be shifting away from science-based risk assessments to one based on detectable residues. They are now saying, `If you can detect it, it's bad.' (Detection) is meaningless without reality-based risk assessments."

He told the delegates that despite the benefit of expanded international trade, the U.S. government "stubbornly maintains unilateral sanctions prohibiting trade with various nations." Cuba, one target of U.S. sanctions, still manages to import $600 million worth of agricultural products from other countries, Kleckner noted.

AFBF would continue to promote more open, freer trade, whether through the World Trade Organization, through bilateral, multilateral, regional trade agreements "or even a `Let's ignore Europe' plan."

The European Union "is going out of its way to be in the way," he said. "Negotiators there are doing whatever they can to hinder fairness and openness in continuing trade talks. They clearly are far more involved with expanding the European Union than they are in bonding with the global community."