Protecting American Agriculture While Facilitating Free Trade
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Abstract
Agriculture is a very valuable to the U.S. economically and socially. Due to the nature of biology, agriculture is highly susceptible to easily created biological weapons. It is the duty of U.S. inspectors to prevent these weapons from entering the country, but increasing pressure from economic globalization and foreign trade agreements has “captured” U.S. regulatory agencies. Using rational decision making models the U.S. has developed policies that allow both the facilitation of trade and increase security and protection for agricultural crops, livestock, and the U.S. food supply.
Agroterrorism
Agriculture makes up a major portion of the U.S. economy. Directly or indirectly agriculture accounts for approximately 16 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, and 12 percent of all jobs (Ridge, 2002). Agriculture also accounts for up to $140 billion annually in exports (Brandt, 2001). The efficient and effective production methods of U.S. farmers have resulted in Americans paying the lowest per capita price for food of any country, at $0.115 per dollar earned (Myers, 2002).
The words agriculture and terrorism do not usually go together, however, since the attacks of September 11th and the introduction of anthrax into the U.S. mail system, the need to consider susceptibilities to acts of terrorism, in the nations food supply chain has been raised (Turvey, Mafoua, Schilling, & Onyango, 2003).
Agroterrorism is a very high threat and a likely plan of attack for future terrorist attacks, it was reported that a significant part of the Al Qaeda training manual is dedicated to agroterrorism (Peters, 2003). There are many reasons why a terrorist act aimed at agricultural products are a growing concern. The first is that agricultural weapons are very easy to acquire and produce. A plant or animal diseases can be isolated from the environment and harvested using basic microbiological knowledge and supplies. Agricultural weapons can be used to full capacity in their raw form, unlike biological weapons which need to be produced in a weaponized form (Casagrande, 2000). It is known that currently three countries have highly developed agricultural warfare capabilities (Horn 1999). The second reason is that is easy to enter agricultural weapons into the country and disperse them without being detected. The detection of biological weapons entering the U.S. depends solely on whether a thorough
physical inspection is applied, and even then they may not be discovered. Once in the country these weapons can be easily dispersed effectively throughout a concentrated area of farmland through basic means. A plant pathogen can be easily dispersed over multiple farms through the wind or through naturally occurring insects, a livestock pathogen may be spread through natural means after the intentional infection of one animal. Lastly the impact of a successful attack on the nations food supply could be devastating. Kohnen (1999) states that the deliberate introduction of a pathogen into U.S. livestock, poultry, or crops would cause food prices to rise, halt exports, and cost taxpayers billions of dollars. In table top exercises conducted by the USDA, the calculated potential spread of Foot and Mouth Disease if it were to outbreak today would be its eventual spread to 39 states and the need to depopulate up to 48 million animals (Apatow, 2003).
Traditionally the first line of defense against agricultural pests, intentional or unintentional, has been to try and keep them out of the country by stopping them at our borders. This means preventing plant or animal pathogens from entering the U.S. through maritime, rail, air, and truck cargo, as well as through individuals crossing the border. The federal government attempts to prevent these pathogens from entering through the use of Agricultural Import Specialists who conduct inspections on all modes of importation, and who belong to U.S. Customs Border Protection (CBP) which is a part of DHS.
These Officers are tasked not only with having to inspect the goods, but with having to inspect them in a manner that facilitates trade. As the head of CBP, Robert Bonner, stated to the Heritage Foundation (2003), “We must protect American lives, but we must also protect
American livelihoods – our economy. Thats why we have twin goals: (1) increasing security and (2) facilitating legitimate trade and travel” (p. 3). Trade is of utmost importance to the U.S. and the pressure from the World Trade Organization (WTO), free trade policies, and agreements like NAFTA force the U.S. to sacrifice some security in order to facilitate efficient free trade.
According to a report by the General Accounting Office (GAO), food safety in the U.S. is threatened by the rapid increase in the foreign agricultural commodities entering the country under agreements like NAFTA. The study showed that as the amount of produce entering the U.S. has grown tremendously the amount of time inspectors are allowed to examine the product has decreased, due to the pressure to fulfill the terms of the trade agreement (Wiehoff, 2003). Leland Swenson, the National Farmers Union president, characterized U.S. border inspections as “crippled due to the massive influx of imports since NAFTA,” and said the lack of adequate inspections threatens the health and safety of domestic livestock and crops and the nations food supply (Suppan and Lehman, 1997).
What is the reason why inspectors cannot can inspect products adequately and at the same time provide the country with a secure border? In order to understand why inspectors cannot facilitate trade and provide absolute security we must go back to the days following 9/11. On September 12 and 13, U.S. Customs was placed on their highest level of alert; this caused wait times at land borders to explode from 10 to 20 minutes, to up to 12 hours (Bonner, 2003). The border was for all intensive purposes closed.
What is more important, trade or security? The answer to this question depends on which industry or agency you ask. In reality, the primary focus is still on facilitating trade in a timely and efficient manner, this is shown by the number of vehicles and passengers that remained
unchecked at ports of entry across America. The globalization of the world market is increasing international competition and in order to manage the balance of imports and exports for
maximum economic health and currency value the U.S. must open the borders to trade (Johnson, 1996 pg 21).