I am also very delighted that Congresswoman Thurman is here today. She is a very effective advocate for Florida agricultural interests.

This is a Listening Session so I do want to spend most of my time listening to you, but I'd like to just begin with some brief overview on some of the principles that we think are going to be important on why we see that it's very important that we launch a new trade negotiating Round and some of the basic issues that we're likely to address.

Let me just say that I really do very fully agree with the basic outlines that you just presented, Commissioner Crawford, and I think you'll see that from some of what I'm going to say.

To begin with, our agricultural trade policies rest on a few basic principles -- opportunity, fairness and respect for science. As you know, America's farmers are the world's most highly competitive and technologically advanced. Because of this, we produce far more than we can ever eat. That means we must seize the opportunity to export to the 96 percent of the human race that lives beyond our borders.

We are, and we will be in the future, increasingly reliant on exports for success. With 20 percent of Florida's agricultural production going overseas at this juncture, this is as true for Florida as it is for the rest of the nation. Foreign markets, which currently absorb 1 point two billion dollars in Florida agricultural exports are already crucial to the incomes to many Florida farm and ranch families. Overall, Florida is among the top 20 agricultural export states and among the top 10 exporters of fruits, peanuts, vegetables and seeds.

Likewise, as Commissioner Crawford has indicated, our agriculture producers, particularly in Florida, depend on strict and impartial enforcement of our trade laws to address dumping, subsidies and surges of imports.

Trade policy must be sensitive to the concerns of import-sensitive products including seasonal, perishable produce -- and you very much recognize that.

As the Commissioner indicated, in 1996, in order to address import surges from Mexican tomatoes, we reached an unprecedented agreement -- a tough agreement that was designed to prevent injurious pricing. It is one that has helped to stabilize markets -- the market and prices and an agreement that has prevented the sustained price drops that occurred prior to the agreement.

Another important principle is that exporters and consumers alike require a strong science-based food inspection regime to ensure confidence in the food supply and to make sure that foreign countries are not creating new trade barriers. These are the fundamental goals that this administration has pursued over the past six years.

Now I just want to focus specifically on what our involvement in the WTO has been about. Through the WTO we have created a set of agreements that have lowered barriers and that are designed to ensure that open markets are open and fair. Our involvement in the WTO represents 50 years of bipartisan American leadership in the creation of the system and has helped to raise incomes, create jobs, and promote American values of fair play and the rule of law worldwide.

Now, as you know the first time was in 1995 we brought agriculture into the trading system in the last Round of negotiations known as the Uruguay Round negotiations, and we have begun to see results. As a result of those negotiations we cut tariffs and quotas on farm and ranch products worldwide. These included substantial cuts in tariffs in Japan and Korea on oranges and fresh grapefruit.

The European Union reduced tariffs for orange juice from 19 percent to 12 percent, and we won similar concessions from a number of other countries. We also began to cut foreign subsidies. And finally, we won the consensus that health and food safety standards should be based strictly on science and public health, rather than serving as disguised barriers to your products. All of these create new opportunities for us to market our goods.

Another very important element of the last Round of negotiations and the creation of the WTO as an institution is a dispute settlement system. We need to make sure that the agreements that we negotiate are not just paper agreements -- that we have a mechanism to bring home the benefits of these agreements back to the United States, and we do that. We created the dispute settlement system and we in the United States have been the most active user of the system and overall we've done very well -- I would say far better than we do in American courts.

We have won 20 out of the 22 cases that we have taken to the WTO and won at the WTO all of our agricultural cases. Interestingly, nearly half the cases we've taken to the WTO involve agricultural products. We've won important victories and victories that will be of enormous significance to Florida interests. You may know of a few celebrated cases such as the bananas case, and of course the beef case which is of much more direct relevance to Florida interests. Here we have threatened to take retaliation if the European Union does not comply with its obligations.

I am going to focus on the WTO but of course, as you know, we pursue our interests not only through the multi-lateral negotiations we pursue but through important bilateral agreements. I just have to mention that because we have done a number of them that are important to Florida. Most recently, as you all know, we concluded an enormously important agreement with China which will have substantial benefits for Florida.

Our ability to secure this agreement really relates to the WTO. It was because the Chinese government was following the WTO standards that we were able to get this agreement. China agreed in this bilateral agreement. I'm emphasizing that because this agreement is already now in effect and will remain in effect regardless of what happens with our WTO session negotiations.

But, in this agreement China lifted its ban of citrus products and this will have -- really open up the market in an important way to your industry. Indeed, your industry is estimating that this might lead to a market of 200 million dollars in Europe, the lifting of a ban by itself, and with the reduction of tariffs that could come if China exceeds to the WTO will be significant additional opportunities. Many Floridians deserve a great deal of credit for their work on this agreement. They have been working for many, many years. Of course Commissioner Crawford has been instrumental here, but I would also like to mention the incredible advice and assistance of Bobby McGowan who is here today. We have really benefited so greatly from his advice and counsel over the years.

Most importantly, I must say that our work is far from done and I know that you know that because there are many remaining barriers to our access to foreign markets, some of which the Commissioner has mentioned. Let me add a few. There are, of course, tariff and other barriers to our citrus products in many markets -- the unscientific meat standards in Europe, very high subsidies, tariff and non-tariff barriers in sugar.

In the testimony that you submitted, we saw many other specific barriers in Chili, Mexico -- I just mentioned -- New Zealand, Argentina. Of course, more remains to be done in China. And of course we see a very disturbing trend in Europe toward a disregard of scientific data in biotechnology. This could present a very significant threat to our biotechnology issue.

The President has called for a new Round of negotiations because he sees that our work is not yet done. We must continue to reduce these significant barriers to our exports in agriculture because, as I've said, we've just begun in the WTO and also more broadly to continue to reduce barriers for our industrial goods and our high-tech goods, as well. Again, Florida has a great stake in our reducing barriers in these areas, as well.

We are going to be launching a new Round of negotiations at the end of this year at a Ministerial to be held in Seattle. It is the largest trade event ever held in the United States in which ministers from over 150 countries will be coming. I am delighted to know that Commissioner Crawford, and I hope many of you will be coming. There will be industries from all over the world. It is a very important time for us.

We decided to host this event here and the President made the decision because we thought it would maximize our ability to shape the agenda and we could also showcase the competitiveness of American producers and workers. So we are very delighted to have the event here, but we must work hard to make sure that we are shaping the agenda right. That's why this event is so important to us.

One thing -- because I want to really listen to you, I am going to spare you on some of the details on how we see the broader negotiations, but let me say of significant importance to agriculture is that we see this Round to be very unlike past negotiating rounds. This is very important to the President. In fact, he laid down a marker last year when he went to Geneva to say, "We have a very different economy than we used to have and people are not going to wait 10 years to secure results." I think that's very important for the agriculture community, too. So what we have been pressing around the world with our trading partners is the notion that this Round will be completed within three years. There is very little precedent for doing that, but I think we're in a very different economic era and we must work to make sure that that happens.

While the negotiations will be broader -- it will involve services and probably industrial tariffs, and that's something that I know the agriculture community generally wants -- the issues themselves are absolutely at the core of the agenda. As Vice-President Gore has said, "Our economy depends on fully productive and competitive agriculture," and the Round is our single biggest opportunity in trade policy to make sure that American agriculture remains the world's standard.

In the months ahead and based on the input that we hear today, we will begin to set a specific agenda. Let me just tell you very broadly what we see the basic issues to be. First, reducing tariffs and other barriers to our products overseas; promoting fair trade by eliminating foreign export subsidies and reducing trade-distorting domestic supports; ensuring greater transparency and fairness in state trading; and helping to guarantee that farmers and ranchers can use safe modern technologies, in particular biotechnology, without the fear of trade discrimination. And very importantly

-- and I very much appreciate hearing your interest on this issue -- ensuring that American producers have the right to effective remedies against dumping, against subsidies and against import surges, and we need to be especially mindful of the case of import-sensitive, seasonal and perishable industries.

Let me just say very briefly that we are already trying to begin to build basic support for our work ahead. We are working through the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas to have our trading partners in the southern hemisphere to agree to our basic views on agriculture. We've taken important steps along that way.

The President has a new African initiative that we are working with our African trading partners to talk about the importance of agriculture, and many of them share our interests and concerns. We're also working with the European Union, as difficult as that can be, to begin to address some of the difficult biotechnology issues -- and of course the most significant progress we have made specifically is in our bilateral agreement with China, which benefits Florida citrus and others.

In all of our work we, of course, need direct input from you and that is why this is such an important event, because the best way we're going to set our agenda is to ask for your help and to base our agenda on your advice. We want to hear your priorities, understand firsthand the problems that you see in international trade, and based on that we hope to agree on the major opportunities that we should expect to realize.

With this advice we hope to set a broad trade agenda that will benefit Florida agriculture and the state of Florida as a whole and our Nation. Through these negotiations we believe that we can raise living standards for American farm and ranch families and we can establish greater security against unfair trade practices.

Let me just say how delighted I am to be here, and thank you again, Commissioner Crawford, for your hosting of this event. This is very, very important to us, our very first event in a series of Listening Sessions. I look forward to hearing your specific comments, concerns and suggestions.

At this point let me introduce Dr. Isi Siddiqui who is the Chief Adviser to Trade to Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman. Thank you very much.

(Applause.)