Marcy Kaptur: “The Peru trade deal will also be bad for U.S. agriculture and all farmers in our country and, amazingly, in Peru. So…”

“The Peru trade deal will also be bad for U.S. agriculture and all farmers in our country and, amazingly, in Peru. So both here at home and abroad it will result in more harm. Let's look at the facts. This current trade deficit chart with Peru tells us we are already in the red with Peru, as we are in the red with China and in the red with Mexico and in the red with almost every other trading country, Japan, et cetera. The U.S. vegetable trade deficit with Peru is already a part of this. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service, just the vegetable deficit component is already over $200 million in 2006. So America's vegetable farmers will lose more market share. They have already lost market share, especially those who farm asparagus, onions and peas. Their situation will be similar to the plight of America's tomato, bell pepper and cucumber farmers who learned well what happened after NAFTA was signed. They all lost production as it relocated. Several global corporations have already indicated what they are going to do. They are already putting their processing plants in Peru. Green Giant has done it. Del Monte has done it. The pattern is the same, the same as under NAFTA.”