MR. JONAS: Good morning. I represent the Florida Tomato Committee, a federal marketing committee that regulates quality standards for fresh Florida tomatoes shipped in interstate commerce. I also represent the Florida Tomato Exchange composed of handlers of fresh market tomatoes produced in central and south Florida, and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, whose members are producers.

The value of the Florida fresh tomato crop represents more than 30 percent of the value of all vegetables grown in Florida each year. Florida produces about 45 to 50 percent of all fresh market tomatoes grown in the U.S. and more than 90 percent of the U.S. production from mid-December to mid-May. Our main competitor is Mexico, who now produces more tomatoes than Florida.

We have been involved in the so-called Florida/Mexico tomato war for about 30 years. We've watched numerous laws passed by the U.S. government that regulate Florida tomato growers but exempt Mexican imports. Even worse are the laws on the books designed to regulate producers of both countries. But Mexican imports are exempted at the whims of bureaucrats who totally ignore the intent of the law.

There are two sets of rules or laws, one for domestic producers and another for imports. A few examples. Section 8(D) of the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act says, "Imports must meet the same terms or conditions in grade, size, quality and maturity of product regulated under a federal marketing group." USDA substitutes minimum for same and totally obliterates the intent of the law.

Mexico does not have to grade or size their tomatoes according to U.S. grade standards. USDA exempted them from following the grade standards. Wages. We pay more per hour than they pay per day. Child labor. They have no rules. Environment protection, no rules. Worker protection, OSHA, no rules. Pesticide regulations, poorly enforced. Inspection at the border. Last February in Nogales 1,200 to 1,500 trucks crossing borders daily. Only 50 totally inspected. Only 25 pesticide residues sampled taken daily.

In Otay/Mesa, California last month there were 2,500 trucks crossing daily, 15 to 70 with agricultural products. Less than 3 of these got an intensive inspection at any given date.

The last straw and the one that really broke the back of the Florida tomato industry was the passage of NAFTA. The Florida tomato industry was promised by the President of the United States that they would be protected, but unfortunately the promises made were not kept and the industry has suffered hundreds of millions of dollars of losses as a result. Thousands of workers have been displaced.

In tomatoes alone, Florida production has decreased more than 37 percent while imports from Mexico have more than doubled in the first three years of NAFTA according to the latest figures produced by the U.S International Trade Commission. This resulted in a decrease in farm income to the Florida tomato growers of more than 750 million dollars.

Our trade negotiators adopted several safeguard provisions to assist the Florida tomato industry. The ones tried failed miserably and some were never used.

Since NAFTA 24 tomato packing houses and more than 100 tomato growers have gone out of business. An anti-dumping case filed against Mexico resulted in preliminary findings indicating that Mexico had dumped tomatoes into the United States at less than fair value. Dumping oranges ranged from 2.1 percent to over 100 percent with an average of about 20 percent.

Following a recommendation by the Commerce Department the Florida tomato industry agreed to accept terms established under a suspension agreement between Mexico tomato growers and the Commerce Department establishing a floor price on the imports of Mexican tomatoes. We recently were informed that neither Commerce nor customs has the authority needed to enforce violations of the suspension agreement.

Apparently the Florida tomato industry is not the only one suffering. According to the Department of Commerce figures the U.S. trade deficit has worsened each year of NAFTA. The trade deficit went from 84.5 billion dollars in '92 to 166 billion dollars in 1996 and has gotten worse each year.

This has created an enormous trade deficit with Mexico which has not -- which was not present prior to NAFTA. For the three years before the agreement went into effect the U.S. trade balance with Mexico was a surplus of between 1 and 5 billion dollars each year. Since NAFTA has been in effect the balance has degraded from a surplus to deficits in 1995 and '96 of 15.3 and 16.2 billion dollars respectively and continues to increase each year.

Also, the U.S. trade deficit with Canada in 1996 was 22.8 million dollars and it also gets worse each year. Before considering fast-track approval or more NAFTA type trade agreements, let's fix the one that we have now or get rid of it.

Why legislate the end of an important industry like the Florida tomato industry and displace thousands of workers? Maybe if more legislators had to meet payrolls each week it would place a different perspective on the situation.

The Florida Tomato Exchange continues their all-out efforts to try to get the USDA and other governmental agencies to enforce the laws the way they were intended to be enforced. Too many times the administrative rules designed by the bureaucrats to enforce the laws have no resemblance to the original intent of the law.

The Farm Bill of 1990 had a secure clause known to most marketing Florida managers -- unknown to most marketing Florida managers -- that required marketing order regulations with Section 8(D) provisions to be sent to the USDR for approval. It allowed this office 60 days to rule on the issue. This has prevented many provisions of the Florida tomato marketing orders from being enforced. The USDR nearly always takes 60 days or more, regardless of the urgency for the needed rule.

We aren't asking much. We just want to have the opportunity to market our products in our own country and have imports marketed under the same rules. Thank you very much.

(Applause.)