Thomas Mott Osborne: “later this year, another round of World Trade Organization talks will be held. Those talks will be pivotal for the…”

“later this year, another round of World Trade Organization talks will be held. Those talks will be pivotal for the United States economy, especially for our agriculture sector. Of critical importance will be the role the European Union plays in these negotiations along with the United States. I would like to point out some things, Mr. Speaker, regarding our situation with the European Union. First of all, as far as the economy of both the United States and the European Union is concerned, they are fairly equal. We have an economy of $11.7 trillion, European Union is $9.4 trillion. And in spite of that equality, our tariffs are very different. Those commodities from the European Union coming into the United States are tariffed at 12 percent. Our commodities going into the European Union are tariffed at 30 percent. So it is more than double. It is hard to understand why with roughly equivalent economies, we have this disparity. The agriculture trade deficit, partly because of this and some other things I am going to discuss in a minute, for the United States last year was a minus $6.3 billion. The European Union obviously benefited to the tune of $6.3 billion in trade. Now, the interesting thing is that the European Union provides $3 billion in export subsidies. The United States provides $31.5 million. These are subsidies that enhance the opportunity to trade with other countries. So that difference is 90 to 1.…”