Rebuilding River Lock and Dam Systems Termed Vital

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is urging Congress to act on rebuilding the nation's locks and dams to replace what NCGA calls an "antiquated" river transportation system. Currently, the lock and dam system on Corn Belt-serving rivers are 60 to 70 years old, designed and built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1930s. Some of these locks are only 600 feet long, making them unable to accommodate some of the modern 1,100 ft. barges. Because of this, barge delays have driven up the cost of U.S.-produced corn and lowered export demand.

NCGA Production and Marketing Director Paul Bertels said, "The Corps did a magnificent job with the design and operation of these locks and dams for the better part of a century. But now the river system is the only place in America where we are forced to use 70-year-old technology. We are now in the 21st Century and it is time to upgrade the U.S. river system to meet the challenges of international marketing in the new millennium."

Increasing the efficiency of the upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers will make a direct impact on corn growers throughout the nation, said Bertels. "Barges on the upper Mississippi River system haul more than 1 billion bushels of corn annually to export. Plus, processing plants base their bid prices off river elevators and the prices impact the rail lines and highways away from the mills. By making the river systems more efficient, bid prices on the river will increase as well as prices throughout the U.S."

Bertels said the improvements need to start immediately. "These improvements could take as long as 20 years to complete," he said. "Congress must see that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finish the (Upper Mississippi-Illinois Waterway System Navigation Study) immediately."

IDFA's Positive Reaction to ITC Trade Report. The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) says a new study by the International Trade Commission (ITC) confirms the prevalence of significant trade barriers for U.S. processed foods. The report validates IDFA's efforts to support trade agreements that remove tariff and nontariff barriers for U.S. products in foreign markets, according to the association.

"The ITC report sheds a bright light on the breadth of international trade in processed foods and the barriers that those products face in overseas markets," said Janet Nuzum, IDFA vice president and general counsel. "As U.S. trade negotiators head to the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha next month and, hopefully, launch a new trade round, this study gives them new leverage in stressing the importance of trade liberalization for the processed foods sector."

Nuzum serves as co-chair of the WTO Processed Foods Coalition which was instrumental in shaping the November 2000 request from the House Committee on Ways and Means for the ITC study. The goal of the WTO Processed Foods Coalition is to ensure that U.S. trade negotiators and policymakers give appropriate priority to processed foods, including processed dairy products.

U.S. processed food exports grew from 31% of all agriculture exports in 1996 to 38% in 2000. The value of U.S. processed food exports in 2000 was $21.5 billion. Last year, exports of U.S. processed dairy foods accounted for 4.1% of all processed foods exports.