Score one for economic development and jobs in the United States. When Congress finally got around to passing bilateral free trade agreements with Panama, South Korea and Columbia, it created the potential for 22,500 jobs in the U.S., with few business sectors benefiting (or celebrating) more than agriculture.

Why it took so long to pass the free trade agreements is a political discussion for another time. Now, though, is the time to thank each of the Arkansas members of Congress. All six members, regardless of party, voted for passage, a commitment we got from them on a trade committee visit to D.C. in May.

Having been to both Panama and South Korea during the past two years on behalf of Arkansas Farm Bureau and the agricultural producers of this state, I can attest to those countries’ interest in passage of these bills. In Korea, in fact, Trade Minister Ted Tehoe Lee asked us to relay to Congress the urgency his agency felt. We later passed along information to our Congressional delegation they were able to share with their colleagues while seeking support for passage of the bills.

Now that the free trade agreements are signed, it’s imperative we move quickly to implement the packages. This will help restore a level playing field for U.S. farm exports.

Combined, the three agreements represent nearly $2.5 billion in new agriculture exports for America’s farmers and are expected to create economic growth that will lead to new jobs when they are desperately needed in our country.

On our trade mission trips, we learned these countries had already opened their doors to our competitors. Passage of the free trade agreements provides an opportunity to improve agriculture’s competitive position in these markets.

It’s estimated the Korea agreement will bring an additional $1.9 billion for U.S. agriculture exports, while the Colombia agreement will bring a $370 million increase and the Panama deal will bring a $46 million gain in agriculture exports. As it relates to Arkansas, these are expected to generate more than $175 million in additional agricultural exports, and help create 2,000 new jobs in our state.

Join me in celebrating the passage of these free trade agreements that serve as an excellent stand-in for a jobs-creation bill.

Worth noting: We’ve invited the Chinese Agricultural Trade Promotion Center, and they’re planning to visit Arkansas. We met with this group during our trip to China and Korea back in June and offered to be their official agency of record for their next visit to the U. S.

In fact, we’ve seen a good bit of interest from foreign governments in Arkansas agricultural products. In the next several months, we’ll have meetings with trade groups from Brazil, Israel, Japan and Columbia.

It’s not always easy to see an immediate impact from trade missions, though passage of the free trade agreements and the upcoming trip from the China Agricultural Trade Promotion group validates our recent trade efforts on behalf of Arkansas’ farmers and ranchers.