The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) is urging the Obama administration to send to Congress, and for lawmakers to approve before August, legislation enacting the U.S.-Panama Free Trade Agreement.

NPPC President Doug Wolf said in testimony this week before the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee that the United States cannot afford to sit on the sidelines.

“There is no standing still when it comes to trade,” Wolf said. “If we do not implement the trade agreements we have negotiated, such as the Panama Trade Promotion Agreement, and fail to move ahead with new ones, we will forfeit those sales to foreign competitors who are aggressively negotiating free trade agreements of their own.”

Wolf also requested that Congress pass the free trade agreements with Columbia and South Korea before the group takes its month-long recess in August.

Wolf stressed during these tight budget times, America’s pork producers are not asking for U.S. tax dollars. What is being requested is that the government take actions necessary to keep them competitive in global markets so that they can retain and expand those markets and create new U.S. jobs.