Chuck Grassley: “Those of us from agriculture States especially know how important the debate on MFN is. China has a population of 1.2…”

“Those of us from agriculture States especially know how important the debate on MFN is. China has a population of 1.2 billion, which is one-fifth of the world population, but it has only 7 percent of the world's arable land. So China will continue to import large amounts of its food needs. The good news for the American farmer is that the diet of the Chinese people is changing rapidly. Meat consumption is growing 10 percent per year there, or a staggering 4 million tons annually. So value-added exports will play a very important role in China's future and in the agricultural exports of our country to China. The potential for growth over the coming decades is extremely high. We are going to have a 75-percent increase of exports to Asia, and 50 percent of that increase by the year 2000 is going to be with China. So by the year 2030 this is going to be a very important market for America and particularly for American agricultural. It also relates very well with our new farm program. This program will have a declining amount of appropriations for agriculture to a phaseout by the year 2002. So farmers will earn more from the marketplace, and our ability to export is very important in accomplishing this. China, of course, will play a very important role in these exports. So I think our policy toward China must be one of aggressive engagement. We need to continue to negotiate agreements with the Chinese on trade and other matters as well.”