MR. BROWNE: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to thank you for providing my company with the opportunity to express its views regarding U.S. agricultural trade policy before the next round of multilateral trade negotiations of the WTO.

My name is Ross Browne. I'm Vice-president of Logistics of G.B. International. G.B. International is an importer and distributor of fruit juice concentrates and food ingredients for the U.S. food industry. We are based in Madison, New Jersey. We source our fruit juice concentrates and food ingredients both domestically and internationally. Our international fruit juices are imported through several U.S. maritime ports. Imports of fruit juice and food ingredients are of great importance to the economy of this area since they've increased commercial maritime traffic in the eastern part of the U.S.

G.B. International fully supports agricultural trade liberalization in the next round of multilateral trade organizations of the WTO. Even though the 1984 Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations gave us some tariff reductions, many agricultural tariffs will continue to be impediments to trade here and abroad. A case in point and of great interest to our company is the excessively high tariff that the U.S. has imposed on imports of frozen lemon juice concentrate. The tariff stands at about 8.13 cents per liter or the equivalent of about more than 80 percent of the value of the imported product. U.S. reductions of this tariff during the Uruguay Round of GATT were, to say the least, minimal.

As a result of this high tariff, U.S. imports of frozen lemon juice concentrate are very small. In 1998 they totaled some $8.4 million of which $6.7 million were paid in duties. Likewise, U.S. exports of this product were only about $3.7 million. As you can see, imports and exports of this product are very small. So my question is, who is the U.S. government trying to protect? The only ones that lose are U.S. consumers since they have to pay higher prices for lemon and lemon-flavored drinks.

For these reasons, we would respectfully request that the U.S. eliminate its excessively high tariff for lemon juice concentrate during the upcoming WTO negotiations.

Yes, on average, we do have some of the lowest agricultural tariffs in the world. But, unfortunately, depending on the commodity, we also have some of the highest. Even the protectionist European Union with its well-developed frozen lemon juice concentrate industries in Italy and Spain only impose a tariff for this commodity at 15 percent ad valorem. This is small change compared to the U.S. tariff on this commodity.

G.B. International would also like to recommend that we consider converting all specific tariff rates that are based on metric tons, such as in the case of the tariff of lemon juice concentrate, to ad valorem tariff rates that are based on the percentage of the value of the product. This would make tariffs most transparent and easy for the use of U.S. importers.

We understand that international trade is a two-way street. If we want countries around the world to eliminate and reduce their protective tariffs on agricultural products of interest to us, we must also do the same. It is our hope that the next round of multilateral negotiations of the WTO will result in the elimination of this unfair U.S. and international tariffs to agricultural trade that only serve to protect a few special interests here and abroad.

Thank you again for the opportunity to present our views on this important matter for our company. We look forward to working with our state and federal officials on this important issue during the upcoming WTO negotiations. Thank you.

UNDER SECRETARY SCHUMACHER: Thank you.