News Release - Etheridge Announces Effort to Boost Tobacco Sales Abroad

News Release
Congressman Bob Etheridge
North Carolina

March 7, 2003

Contact: Sara Lang
Phone: (202) 225-4531

Etheridge Announces Effort to
Boost Tobacco Sales Abroad

Lawmaker Re-Introduces Bill to Lift Restrictions
on Government Promotion of Tobacco Leaf Sales

RALEIGH -- U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington), a member of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, announced today that he has re-introduced legislation to boost U.S. tobacco leaf sales by lifting the decade old restriction on the use of federal Market Access Program (MAP) funds to promote sales overseas. Nearly $90 million in MAP funds are used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) each year to promote U.S. agricultural products overseas. Since 1993 USDA has been prohibited from using MAP funds to promote tobacco sales overseas. In remarks delivered at the annual Tobacco Associates meeting in Raleigh today, Etheridge announced that he has introduced legislation to lift the prohibition and allow MAP funds to be used to promote the sale of tobacco leaf in overseas markets.

“Exports are the key to the survival of this industry, the key to the survival of our farmers and their families, and the key to the prosperity of hundreds of rural areas throughout the South,” Etheridge said. However, if tobacco interests are not represented when trade deals are made, we will miss out on the benefits of trade. I will keep fighting to restore equity and fairness to the MAP program for tobacco growers.”

Under MAP, agricultural industry trade associations, cooperatives and state or regional trade groups each year are invited to submit proposals to USDA to access funds to promote agricultural products overseas, conduct market research, access technical assistance and for trade servicing and facilitation. MAP funds have been used to promote a wide range of products from sunflower seeds to catfish and cotton to hops for use in making beer. Since 1993, USDA has been prohibited from receiving or considering such application from tobacco farmers or their representatives. Etheridge serves on the Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Specialty Crops to which this legislation will be referred.