(Whereupon a lunch recess was held.)

MR. KELLY: If you get your seats we'll get started. We ran a little over and so we're going to go to the schedule of speakers that we had and then we'll open this up. When the prepared speakers are through we'll probably get a little question and answers -- we're fortunate to have joining our panel Ms. Teresa Howes, a representative of USTR and I think Dr. Martha Roberts needs no introduction, but we are also fortunate to have her to join our panel at this point. We're going to start back.

One thing that I was asked to mention, and I think most of you are aware of this but I hope you are -- we are recording this session. Any comments will be recorded and will be forwarded on. We'd like for all of you to know that what you say is important. We appreciate you taking the time to be here. We know how busy everybody is, but we do appreciate all the participation of each and every one of you. It is important to us what you say, so please continue to express your feelings in this Listening Session.

Okay. In order to try to keep us moving along we're going to go back to our schedule and we're going to ask Ms. Mary Lou Racjheal. We apologize for breaking but we had the press here. We did need to do that. But Mary Lou, please proceed.

MS. RACJHEAL: My name is Mary Lou Racjheal and I am Vice-President of the Florida Phosphate Council, a private non-profit corporation which serves as the trade association for the phosphate mining and the phosphate fertilizer manufacturing industry in Florida. The council has seven member companies, multi-national in character and international in scope. These companies comprise almost 100 percent of the phosphate operations that occur in Florida.

Fair trade and expanding market access are issues of vital importance to phosphate producers in Florida. I am joined here today by representatives of our member companies including Cargill Fertilizer, CF Industries, IMC Agrico Company, Mulberry Corporation, PCS Phosphate White Springs and U.S. Agrichemicals Corporation.

The Florida phosphate industry has been in continuous operation for more than 100 years and currently owns or has mineral rights to 524,000 acres in Colombia, DeSoto, Duval, Hamilton, Hardee, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Polk and St. John's counties. Florida provides about 75 percent of the nation's phosphate supply and about 25 percent of the world's supply. Ninety percent of the phosphate mined is used to make fertilizer.

At the end of 1998 the industry had 8,061 employees who received a total payroll, including fringe benefits, of more than 456 million dollars. This is an average of more than $56,000 per year per employee. For every job in the industry at least five others exist because of the industry. For example, according to the Tampa Port Authority, the Port of Tampa generates 93,000 jobs and almost half of that number are phosphate related.

In addition, at least 50 percent of the tonnage handled by the Port is phosphate related. In 1998 the industry paid approximately 1.3 billion dollars for equipment and supplies, 125 million dollars in taxes and fees, 148 million dollars on services such as electricity and telephone, and 215 million dollars on land transportation of phosphate products.

In 1998 the value of fertilizer exports from Florida was 1.8 billion dollars. If I were to leave you with one point of emphasis, it is that trade with China is key to the Florida phosphate industry. China is a major trading partner with the industry. China's fertilizer market is the largest in the world, including 28 percent of phosphate fertilizers.

The U.S. exports approximately 7 million tons per year of phosphate fertilizer to China, which represents almost half of total U.S. phosphate exports and nearly one-fourth of total U.S. phosphate production. So the Florida Phosphate Council strongly recommends the completion of the China WTO session agreement and supports permanent, normal trade relations for China.

Dr. Roberts, we would appreciate very much if you would convey to Commissioner Crawford how much we appreciate being asked to appear today to address the important issues of fair trade and global market access. Dr. Siddiqui, Mr. Baas and Ms. Howes, we appreciate the time that you are giving in evaluating what is really a very multi-faceted and complex topic.

As I said, we have representatives from our member companies in the audience if you have any questions, so we would be happy to respond. Thank you.