By STEVE BINDER
Illinois Correspondent

PEORIA, ILL. — The chair of Caterpillar, Inc. threw his support last week behind proposed free trade agreements (FTAs) with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, something that history shows would benefit the Illinois-based company’s bottom line.

CAT CEO Doug Oberhelman in Washington, D.C., last week urged Congress to approve pending agreements as soon as possible. The company long has supported free trade deals with Mexico, Central America, Peru, Chile and the Dominican Republic.

“The message about the success of FTAs is too important to get lost,” he said. “American manufacturers can compete with anyone – provided they have open markets and a level playing field. Opening foreign markets is a fundamental competitive challenge for the United States to increase exports and generate more U.S. jobs.

“We need to open those foreign markets with a sense of urgency, before our competitors in Asia, Europe, South America and Canada leapfrog us with their own trade agreements.”

The boost of support comes on the heels of a trade mission by an Illinois Farm Bureau delegation last month to Panama and Colombia. That group learned firsthand how much the two countries want a stronger trading partnership with the U.S.

“When they (Obama and lawmakers) tell us that every $1 billion in exports supports at least 9,000 jobs here at home, it sure seems like a no-brainer to us,” Jefferson County’s John Howard said.

Ron Schoenholz farms about 900 acres in Lee County, Ill., producing livestock feed. “We need to be able to supply the world with products, that we raise, that can benefit their diets and improve their quality of life,” he said.
“We are losing market share in Colombia because they are signing other free trade agreements with other countries. They are purchasing grain products from them instead of from us.”

Oberhelman last week reiterated the importance of reducing or eliminating tariffs. “A Colombian customer has to pay significantly more in additional taxes due to the tariffs on the import of a U.S. machine,” he said.
A bulldozer costs $100,000 more and a large truck is $300,000 more because of the tariffs, he explained.

“For Caterpillar, which exported more than $13.4 billion in goods from its U.S. manufacturing facilities last year, there is a tremendous opportunity to sell more mining trucks and scrapers made in Decatur, Illinois, and track-type tractors made in East Peoria, Illinois, to Panama as part of its canal expansion plans,” Oberhelman added.