Now we call on Mr. John O'Donnell, Port of Wilmington, Diamond State Port Corporation.

MR. O'DONNELL: Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to address the Panel. I'm John O'Donnell, Director of Marketing and Trade for the Port of Wilmington, Delaware. Sandwiched between the mid-Atlantic mega ports of New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Virginia, we are Delaware's gateway port. And for the past several years, we have been the nation's number one port for imported fruit and produce and also for imported juice concentrates. We hold the distinction of being the nation's number one banana port with almost one million tons of bananas per year for Dole and Chiquita. In addition, we handle several hundreds of thousands of tons of deciduous fruit imports from Chile and New Zealand.

As an export gateway, we've handled frozen poultry exports to Russia for the Delmarva producers, east coast apple shipments to Brazil and Costa Rica. There's a regular service operating out of Wilmington to Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala and every fall a number of container loads of U.S. apples and other deciduous fruits go down there through Wilmington. And in the past, we've also handled shipments of live Holstein dairy cows to north Africa.

From our perspective on the front line of trade and agricultural trade in particular, I would like to express the following concerns, issues and questions. First is a concern regarding the phyto of fumigation of imported fruits and produce. This having to do with impending or phyto plan phasing out of methylbromide as a fumigant and, at present, the lack of a viable substitute.

Every year the Port of Wilmington handles 14 million boxes of Chilean grapes per year and tens of millions of dollars have been invested in the state of Delaware shipside warehouses, cold storage facilities and fumigation facilities where we fumigate and handle the fruit.

So the phyto of fumigation, naturally, is a vital question for our port and the employees of the port. And as long as a safe substitute for methylbromide has not been found, we would like to ask that the government continue the use of methylbromide as a fumigant for imported fruits and avoid disruptions of this trade, which is so vital to us.

Secondly, I would like to express the Port's support for the USDA's proposal to permit limited imports of Argentine lemons and citrus from several provinces in Argentina's northwest region. We currently have a thriving trade in agricultural products from Argentina, mostly apple juice concentrate. And we have regular service of refrigerated vessels between Argentina and the Port of Wilmington which could provide a natural service for the citrus imports if they are approved. This proposal we see as resulting in new trade for the Port, new cargoes, new shipping opportunities and new job opportunities. Therefore, we support that.

We would like to express our concern over the extremely high and prohibitive tariffs levied against imports of lemon juice concentrates in the U.S. In the past on these same vessels, we used to receive lemon juice, frozen lemon juice concentrate from Argentina. In addition, we've also received some from Mexico, but in limited quantities. And looking at the existing tariff level, it seems to be quite high, almost 60-70 percent of the product, making it one of the highest tariffs against any agricultural import. As a potential new trade for the Port and a new cargo for our warehouses, we would support the reduction or the elimination of the tariff.

Next, I would like to express our concern and disappointment over trade restrictions that were recently imposed by the President's Office on imports of lamb from New Zealand which we have been handling. It resulted in the loss of some trade and jobs at the Port and the loss of some cargo for one of our shipping lines which operate a regular refrigerated service from New Zealand to Wilmington. And like all trade restrictions and quotas, it seems to result in higher prices for the consumers as well.

Lastly, with all our trade and agricultural products, fruit, produce and frozen meat, juice concentrates, we have a significant USDA-APHIS/PPQ presence at the Port and I would just like to compliment that group and the Port of Wilmington contingent and just say what an outstanding job they're doing with limited resources. They have worked as a partner with the Port to expedite the tremendous growth in trade, especially with fruit and produce, and at the same time they are working very hard to protect U.S. agriculture. We also have a small contingent of FSIS inspectors and likewise they are doing an outstanding job as well.

Thank you.

UNDER SECRETARY SCHUMACHER: Thank you.

Very helpful to hear the other side of the debate. The lamb issue is an important one, similar to the apple concentrates. Those two issues, and I don't know if there'll be any people testifying from the southern Pennsylvania or Maryland apple industry here, but they are hurting very badly because of the alleged dumping of Chinese apple concentrate onto these markets.

Yesterday, the National Tariff and Trade Commission announced that there would be further review of that. They sustained the initial because of the destruction of our low-end apple -- smaller apple concentrate that has really devastated that tree. It cuts both ways. The sheep industry in Montana was very grumpy and grouchy with about the surge of Australian/New Zealand lamb that almost doubled in three or four years.

I think we don't mind, you know, fair and level trade, but when these surges come on that occurred in lamb and is occurring in Chinese apple concentrate, that is very destructive of our industry. And it cuts both ways. So I think your testimony is very helpful. We need a little more balance to where we are on this. And the Port's certainly affected. Sell a few more apples.

MR. O'DONNELL: We'd like to encourage more apple exports through the Port and even more exports of lamb if those were available.

UNDER SECRETARY SCHUMACHER: Thank you, sir.

AMBASSADOR BAAS: Has the Asian longhorn beetle had any effect on the operations of the Port of Wilmington?

MR. O'DONNELL: Not so far. Of course, they're on the lookout for it and have enacted very strict measures regarding the importation of any wood products from those countries. And we don't have a tremendous trade from Asia.

AMBASSADOR BAAS: It's all mainland China.

MR. O'DONNELL: Yes. So we haven't really experienced any problems.

AMBASSADOR BAAS: Thank you.