OREGON & WASHINGTON
INNOVATORS
INSIDE
FRIDAY, JULY 29, 2016
VOLUME 89, NUMBER 31
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
$2.00
Agricultural backers of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
hope the treaty will be approved after the election
and before the new president takes office
TRADE
GAP
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
D
“We used to have victories, but we don’t
have them. When was the last time
anybody saw us beating, let’s say, China in
a trade deal? They kill us.”
– Donald Trump
onald Trump and Hillary Clinton may agree on only
one issue in the November presidential election: They
don’t like the Trans-Pacifi c Partnership.
The 12-nation treaty would meld existing trade
agreements with six Pacifi c Rim nations and include
fi ve other up-and-coming trade partners. Included in the deal are
three of the largest U.S. trade partners: Canada, Mexico and Japan.
But both the Democratic and Republican nominees have come
out against the TPP, and demanded that their running mates switch
positions and do the same.
Trump was fi rst to condemn the treaty.
He announced his bid for president on June 16, 2015, at the
Trump Tower in New York City.
But before he talked about terrorism or immigration, he riffed
on trade.
“We used to have victories, but we don’t have them. When was
the last time anybody saw us beating, let’s say, China in a trade
deal? They kill us,” Trump said.
Then, pressured by left-leaning Bernie Sanders in the Demo-
cratic primaries, Clinton reversed course — she once called it the
“gold standard” of trade deals — and joined Trump’s criticism of
the TPP.
At a reconciliation rally this month with Bernie Sanders, Clin-
ton denounced TPP.
“And we’re going to say ‘no’ to a tax on working families
and no to bad trade deals and unfair trade practices, including the
Trans-Pacifi c Partnership,” she said.
Broad support
TPP has broad-based support from agriculture. In April, 229
farm associations and food processors signed a letter to House and
Senate leaders backing TPP. The following month, Agriculture
Secretary Thomas Vilsack and American Farm Bureau Federation
President Zippy Duvall made a joint pitch in a conference call to
reporters.
“No country — no country — is going to realize more benefi t from
the Trans-Pacifi c Partnership than the United States,” Vilsack said.
“And we’re going to say ‘no’ to a tax
on working families and no to bad
trade deals and unfair trade practices,
including the Trans-Pacifi c Partnership.”
– Hillary Clinton
Turn to TPP, Page 12
Russia bans cultivation, breeding of GMOs Ecology may reconsider
Law expected to have long-term effects on global ag
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Russia has banned the
cultivation and breeding of
genetically engineered crops,
which may have long-term
consequences for biotechnol-
ogy in global agriculture, ex-
perts say.
Biotech critics and sup-
porters agree that the prohibi-
tion won’t have an immediate
impact on U.S. farmers, since
Russia doesn’t currently pro-
duce genetically engineered
crops or import many of
them.
However, the new law
does close a potentially large
market for U.S.-grown bio-
tech crops in the future, said
Mary Boote, executive direc-
tor of the Global Farmer Net-
work, a nonprofi t that advo-
cates for trade and technology
in agriculture.
“Long term, we should all
cost of Wash. dairy rules
Farmers see threat
to industry
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
In this image, fi eld corn is delivered to the Green Plains ethanol
plant in Shenandoah, Iowa. Much of the U.S. crop of fi eld corn,
which is used for animal feed, sweeteners and ethanol, is geneti-
cally modifi ed. Russia has decided to ban most GMO crops.
be concerned,” she said.
The ban applies to culti-
vation and breeding of ge-
netically modifi ed organisms,
or GMOs, within Russia, but
doesn’t outright ban imports
of them if they’re already ap-
proved in that country.
Turn to GMO, Page 12
BELLINGHAM, Wash.
— Dairy farmers and envi-
ronmentalists Tuesday crit-
icized new manure-control
rules the state Department
of Ecology plans to fi nal-
ize early next year, accus-
ing state regulators of be-
ing too meddlesome or too
lax.
At the fi rst of two public
hearings on the proposal,
farmers said dairies already
are heavily regulated and
that Ecology’s new layer of
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Lynden, Wash., dairy farmer
Sherman Polinder gestures
while testifying July 26 in Bell-
ingham on the Department of
Ecology’s proposed permit for
concentrated animal feeding
operations.
mandates would be unnec-
essary, expensive and even
dispiriting.
Turn to RULES, Page 12
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