Thank you, Justin. Duane Maatz from the -- also from the Red River Valley Potato Growers will be followed by Chris Hanson and then Bob Thullner.

MR. MAATZ:

Hello, I’m Duane Maatz with -- I’m the office employee at the Red River Valley Potato Growers. I serve as the president and guys like Justin are my employer and I don’t ever forget who I’m working for. It’s extremely important. One of the things that I do is I serve on the Government Relations and International Trade Committee with the National Potato Council, as well. They’re based out of Denver. And I have some comments that come from them, and being as close to a lot of these issues as we are, they do -- they do hit close to home. A lot of these comments address two issues relevant to U.S. government policies for the Uruguay Round mandated negotiations on agriculture. They include the inadequacies of the Uruguay Round commitments on domestic subsidies, market access and sanitary and phytosanitary disciplines. And, number two, the ways to improve on those commitments in the new round of the WTO agriculture negotiations to begin in November of 1999. Exports make up for an ever growing percentage of U.S. potato production, accounting for 11 percent of total production and over 15 percent of frozen potato product sales. U.S. exports of all potato products were $725 million in 1998. That’s a 34 percent increase since 1994. This shows the reward for all the hard work and promotional efforts carried out by the industry in overseas markets. Conversely, a total potato product imports by the U.S. rose 163 percent during 1994 to reach $386 million in 1998. These imports were mainly from Canada and the European Union and were led by dramatic increases in frozen fries and potato starch. Despite the Uruguay Round, liberalization and bilateral and regional agreements that have sought to eliminate barriers to trade, including the U.S./Canada free trade agreement and the North America free trade agreement, U.S. potato growers and processors face high tariffs and other market access barriers in export markets around the world and unfair competition in the U.S. market primarily from subsidized fresh and processed potatoes from Canada. It’s been estimated that 2 billion pounds of frozen potato products will be produced in Canada this year and 75 to 85 percent of that is destined for the U.S. market. Over -- since 1993 we’ve watched that go up 360 percent of just the product that comes here. One thing that seems very unusual if you look at some of our information that we’ve accumulated and documented over the -- over the last several years is that Canada has done a great job capturing the biggest market in the world for their product. When you look at all the data that -- from all the French fries that they ship to all the other countries, they have no increases or even decreases in other foreign exports. The United States is their big market, it is where they expand. And -- and it’s hurting us quite a bit today. In the area of tariff reductions, and the U.S. potato industry supports the WTO adoption of the tariff initiative on processed foods being considered by the APEC countries, U.S. potato growers and processors have supported U.S. efforts under the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation to reduce or eliminate tariffs in the processed food sector and on frozen French fries in particular. The U.S. potato industry asks that the following principles be included in the U.S. government’s negotiating objectives for market access liberalization to significantly reduce tariff sought for agriculture products, including processed food in all WTO countries, including so-called developing countries as Justin alluded to. The U.S. has the lowest ag food and tariffs of the WTO countries, particularly for potatoes. Accordingly, U.S. tariff levels should not be further reduced without strict and immediate reciprocity by other WTO member countries to reduce their tariffs on U.S. tariff -- to U.S. tariff levels. Other potato countries include Europe, Canada, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand must match the U.S. reduction commitments. The new round should seek to hasten countries implementation of the Uruguay Round sanitary and phytosanitary agreements. In the area of potato seed and, of course, being located where we are, we see it with Canada quite a bit. If you’re a Canadian seed producer, you have great access to U.S. markets in regard to, if you have a bin full of potatoes, you can receive a health certificate which allows you to ship them nearly anywhere in the world by Canadian standards. If you’re a North Dakota or a Minnesota or a Wisconsin potato grower, you need to have each load inspected and pay for that inspection and then when it crosses the border, if it can get through the border, it will be reinspected by a private agency within the Canadian -- or selected by the Canadian government, although it’s not a Canadian agency, and then you as the producer, as the exporter, pay for that inspection, as well. And the objectives are very different. A health certificate is a pretty loosely knit item, you know. Any of us could give a health certificate if we stood on the top of the bin and -- and smelled a little bit and didn’t see a big sink hole, we’d probably think it’s okay. And that’s about the way it feels to us. And Canada has effectively captured our Western states seed markets and -- which has a direct impact on the Red River Valley. I believe we’re 15,000 acres down in seed over the last eight to 12 years. It’s a significant decrease in revenue when it comes to those individuals who grow that seed. She knows that I used to teach school. She’s going to cut me off. I can see it coming. I do have comments prepared by the National Potato Council that I’ll distribute. I appreciate your time. We have a lot of concerns, as everyone does, and we’re -- we’re very hopeful that we’ll make good ground and progress in the talks in Seattle. Thank you.