Senate, White House Reps Both
Say Ag Critical To Trade Talks

WASHINGTON — The U.S. chief trade negotiator is telling Congress that she will take an aggressive stance on agricultural issues on upcoming international trade talks.

A trade ministers' meeting is planned for Seattle, Wash., at the end of November, prior to the next round of World Trade Organization negotiations which begin next year.

Charlene Barshefsky, the lead negotiator for the United States, has assured senators that agricultural issues will not be ignored.

Appearing recently before the Senate Finance Committee, she and Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman vowed that the U.S. position going into the talks will be aggressive.

"We will work to eliminate and prohibit for the future all export subsidies and to substantially reduce trade distorting domestic supports," Barshefsky said. "We will work to lower tariffs and improve the administration of tariff binding quotas."

The Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation countries have already agreed, she said, following the September APEC meeting in New Zealand.

She said she hopes the next round of trade negotiations will be completed within three years.

Glickman told Senators that the U.S. is playing on an unfair trading field now and that the European Union should remove its high trade subsidies.

"Right now we believe that the EU is responsible, according to our records and OECD records, for 80 percent of the world's total subsidies," Glickman said.

He said further reduction of worldwide tariffs is high on his list of items to be discussed.

"The average WTO member tariff for agriculture in the world is 50 percent. The U.S. average is eight percent," Glickman noted.

He said he wants more market access, disciplines on state trading enterprises like the Canadian Wheat Board, and reform in areas such as bio-technology.

But not everyone in the ag community is certain that ag issues will be on the front burner. Some producer organizations and farm state lawmakers are worried that agriculture will be put on the back burner at World Trade Organization talks in Seattle in late November.

During a Senate hearing, Agriculture Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, told administration officials that agriculture cannot be negotiated outside a normal trade package.

"While we all share an interest in seeing market liberalization for all United States exports," Lugar said, "the administration has not explained how the interests of agriculture will be protected in pursuing these early results."

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said American farmers need to be protected from unfair foreign imports. He contended they have been left to the mercy of the free market.

"We've depopulated rural America," Harkin said. "My state, the Dakotas, the Midwest is depopulated because of these agricultural polices. I have fought all my life against them."

Special Trade Ambassador Peter Scher contended that the Clinton administration has constantly pushed for freer and fairer trade.

"We've called for lower tariffs and binding tariffs," Scher said," and getting at the disparities, not only in the average tariffs, but in the structure of those tariffs."

He said Congress has also been sending mixed signals on free trade, which undermines trade negotiators.