Norvell Emerson: “while I am in support of the budget resolution before the House today I do want to alert Members to a serious issue. I…”

“while I am in support of the budget resolution before the House today I do want to alert Members to a serious issue. I believe that this is no time to back away from aggressive trade policies. We need all the tools available in a post- NAFTA and post-GATT world to ensure that our farmers can fairly compete in world agriculture trade. There are programs that help American farmers and one of them is Public Law 480. This program helps countries become our trading partners of the future. We need to strengthen Public Law 480 and integrate it into an aggressive trade strategy to make us more competitive. The 1996 farm bill made significant changes to Public Law 480 to improve the program. For example, South Korea was a former Public Law 480 recipient. Now South Korea is the fifth largest market for United States agriculture goods. We sell over $2 billion in agriculture products to South Korea each year. Countries now receiving title I assistance include Lithuania and Ukraine, countries that will be our future cash trading partners. I do not believe we should turn our backs on the farmers and ranchers of America. We need all the trading partners we can get--or the European union will take over all agriculture exports in the world.”