Testifying before the Senate Finance Committee Thursday – Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack called the Permanent Normal Trade Relations for Russia a significant opportunity for America’s farmers, ranchers and producers. According to Vilsack – it will provide improved, predictable access to Russia’s 140-million consumers and an expanding middle class that has grown by more than 50-percent in the last decade. By granting PNTR – he says the U.S. will not provide additional market access to our domestic market for Russian agricultural imports. Instead – Vilsack says it will simply make the market access we’ve been extending to the country since 1992 permanent. If Russia is not granted PNTR – Vilsack says the nation’s farmers, ranchers and producers will face an uneven playing field as their competitors benefit from Russia’s guaranteed tariff treatment and obligation to apply science-based sanitary and phytosanitary standards. With the help of Congress – he says U.S. agriculture can soon reap the benefits of improved market access and Russia’s obligations in a rules-based system.

In fiscal year 2011 – U.S. ag exports to Russia were nearly 1.4-billion dollars. Vilsack told committee members that the U.S. only imported 25-million dollars of agricultural products from Russia las year. He said that impressive performance was accomplished despite Russia’s imposition of non-science based sanitary and phytosanitary measures and unjustified technical barriers to trade.

As part of its WTO accession agreement – Vilsack notes Russia has agreed to reduce tariffs on a number of imported ag products. For instance – soybean tariffs will be bound at zero and maximum bound tariffs on most cheeses will drop from 25-percent to 15-percent within three years. Vilsack says Russia also applies tariff-rate quotas on a variety of U.S. agricultural imports. Upon WTO accession – he says the country will implement a U.S. country-specific TRQ of 60-thousand tons of frozen beef with an in-quota tariff of 15-percent. Russia’s membership in the WTO will also lock in the current applied global TRQs for pork. Russia will immediately eliminate the in-quota 15-percent tariff and significantly lower the out-of-quota tariff upon accession. According to Vilsck – a critical market access barrier for U.S. dairy exports will also be removed.

Bank of America is partnering with the Humane Society of the United States – releasing a new HSUS-themed credit card. The card will provide HSUS with 60-dollars for every new account opened and an additional 25-cents for every 100-dollars spent. The Animal Agriculture Alliance wrote to Bank of America’s President to request that the bank stop funding groups like HSUS that seek to eliminate animal agriculture. The Alliance is currently a Bank of America customer – but says it would be forced to reconsider that relationship if the bank continues to support groups that unfairly attack the way of life of America’s Farmers and Ranchers. The Alliance has not received a response.

The Animal Agriculture Alliance is encouraging all ag stakeholders to write their own local Bank of America to share the true agenda of animal rights extremists and ask them to drop their support for HSUS. They note social media can also be utilized by tweeting concerns to Bank of America or sharing a post on the bank’s Facebook page.

The Obama Administration is strongly opposed to the Agriculture Appropriations measure as reported by the House Appropriations Committee. According to the Statement of Administration Policy – the bill severely undermines key investments in financial oversight in a manner that would cripple Wall Street reform. The statement goes on to point to harmful cuts in rural economic development, renewable energy development, nutrition programs, food safety and international food aid. The Administration says investing in these areas is critical to the nation’s economic growth, security and global competitiveness. The Administration also opposes the inclusion of ideological and political provisions that are beyond the scope of funding legislation. This includes the provision that would effectively prevent the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration from further implementing the remaining portions of its marketing rule. If presented with the measure – H.R. 5973 – the President’s senior advisors would recommend he veto the bill.

Following Senate passage of the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act – House Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas and Ranking Member Collin Peterson both commended Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow and Ranking Member Pat Roberts. Lucas said moving the legislation was a challenge – and the efforts of Stabenow and Roberts made it possible. Peterson gave the pair high marks for securing bipartisan support and brining the bill one step closer to completion. While stating that he’s not on board with everything they did – Peterson did express confidence that the differences can be worked out in conference committee. Lucas too noted there will be differences between the Senate approach and the House approach. When the House Ag Committee meets July 11th to consider their version of the farm bill – Lucas says they will consider a balanced proposal that saves taxpayers billions of dollars, recognizes the diversity of American agriculture, respects the risks producers face and preserves the tools necessary for food production.

Peterson also stressed the need to finish the farm bill before the current bill expires in September. Waiting for the lame duck session – he said – will not only make it more difficult – but could result in several unintended consequences. Peterson believes if the committee passes a bipartisan bill in early July – House leadership will have little choice but to bring the farm bill to the floor before the August recess. He says he will continue to work with Chairman Lucas and members of the Committee to make that happen.