We are running just slightly behind here, but with your cooperation we’ll be able to get through a few housekeeping duties early on as our panel gets seated. Again, welcome to this most important process. It is your chance to share. The people that you have in front of you here have got a very willingness to listen. They are prepared to make possibly a few comments back so that we can have a good exchange, and that will all be depending on the presentations. Just a few housekeeping notes as we get started. You do have a list of the times for the presentations. And, again, we are starting now at 10 o’clock and our first presenter will be Ron Olson. A few housekeeping for those of you that are on the panel and I’ll repeat this a few times as we go through. We do have a timer set up. You’ll notice a small light system here. It will be green as your comments are speaking and one minute will turn yellow, and when you see the big red flashing light that’s when you’ll see me stand up and get ready to try to summarize your comments. That way everybody will have a chance. We have had several people walk in wanting to present this afternoon -- or this morning and this afternoon. We will try to accommodate that with everybody cooperating. We should be able to have a full morning, full afternoon, and a good session. At 12 o’clock noon we will take a break for lunch. That is on your own. There are several fast-food restaurants in the area. There is a restaurant here in the hotel. We will reconvene promptly at one o’clock. A note to the media. You are invited to stay at 12 o’clock for a briefing session. Please just stay here in the front and -- and Michael Schomer (ph) from the Department of Agriculture will walk you through that. I will be calling the names of several of the speakers that, if you will, are in the bullpen on deck and up to bat. Up to bat this morning from the South Dakota Corn Growers Association if Ron Olson can make his way up, Bob Zelenka of the Minnesota Feed and Grain Association you will be speaking second and Niel Ritchie of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy will be our third presenter this morning in this time lot. Welcome Ron. It’s a pleasure to have you here. You will be speaking from here. And, again, as we get started our light system will be right on the corner of the table.

MR. OLSON:

Good morning, my name is Ron Olson. I’m a farmer from Waubay, South Dakota. My wife and I raise corn, soybeans and alfalfa. It was kind of hard to leave. We still have some beans to put in and hay needs to be put up, but this is important. Part of farming is marketing and -- and I believe in this. I’m Vice President of the South Dakota Corn Growers Association. It’s an -- it’s an honor to speak after two Governors and a Senator spoke, but more so more intimidating for a farmer. Being in the tractor for two months it’s -- you kind of become a social introvert. So I’ll try to get through this. I’m not a speech writer or a speech giver, so bear with me as I go through this. The United States farmers are efficient, productive and competitive in the world grain market. Exports of corn and corn products are most valuable than any other single commodity in most years. However, trade barriers and competitor’s export subsidies hinder us from capturing full value of our competitive advantage. We need a level playing field to have full access to the world markets. United States policy must be clear, concise as it promotes fair and open global trade of our corn and corn products. We appreciate this administration’s aggressive approach to trade negotiations. We are confident that the future multilateral negotiations can lead to significant further liberalization of agriculture trade. There’s been significant progress in the Uruguay Round agreements on agriculture. We need to build that progress from a national perspective. We need to expand and strengthen agreements on market access, export subsidies, internal support, sanitary and phytosanitary measures. Market access provisions of the Uruguay Round agreements on agriculture require that non-tariff measures be replaced by bound tariffs and that tariff levels be reduced. Agriculture continues to be one of the most protected sectors with relatively high tariffs on many agriculture products. Although corn can be imported into the United States at a very low tariff, U.S. corn exports face prohibitive tariffs around the world. When grain supplies are plentiful, U.S. corn effectively is kept out of the mix. It’s important that the U.S. farm producers be able to build sustainable demand for their products. Restricted access makes that difficult and contributes to lower U.S. farm prices. Without consistent access to import market, it’s impossible to develop new, consistent demand. That leaves the U.S. to be an occasional supplier. Prior to the event of NAFTA, that was the situation we faced in Mexico. Mexico bought U.S. corn as needed, but it was impossible to build new demand. As a part of NAFTA, Mexico agreed to tariff rate quota. For a minimum quantity of U.S. corn, the tariff rate quota created a market that did not previously exist. The EU is another example of market utilization of high tariff to keep foreign grains out. Although the EU agreed to reduce tariffs under the Uruguay agreement, the existing tariff is still too high to allow meaningful access with minor exemptions. Understand that there are current restrictions on the export of some biotech corn to the EU, but further tariff reductions will be necessary if the U.S. corn will be able to compete in the EU. China has great possibilities for the United States. China imports corn when supplies are low. Most of the time they deny access to their vast market. We appreciate the occasional opportunity to meet their needs, but over the long haul price volatility from the occasional sale is not healthy. We want and need the opportunity to compete in every market around the world. We hope that when the negotiations to bring China to the World Trade Organization are finalized the United States can export corn to China on a regular basis rather than sporadically. Export subsidies. The United States exports about 20 percent of the corn we produce in this country which his between 55 and 65 percent of the world corn trade. Ten years ago we exported more than 30 percent of our corn crop and controlled almost 80 percent of the world market. Other countries export subsidies make it difficult for our unsubsidized grain to compete even though the agreement on agriculture established a maximum ceiling on the quantity of export subsidies. Low quality European feed wheat continues to display corn in several markets. One of our goals in the next round of negotiations is to further reduce export subsidies. Sanitary and phytosanitary measures. Under the WTO, member nations agreed to eliminate import restrictions that are based on arbitrary and unsubstantiated health and safety claims. The trade situation for corn is complicated by the status of products enhanced through biotechnology. In the European Union, biotech products are subject to multiple regulations. Corn and corn products considered unapproved transgenic events are handled differently. Last year the U.S. lost approximately $200 million of corn exports to the EU because of unwarranted delays in the EU approval process. This year exporters are reluctant to bid for U.S. corn for shipment to the EU because of last years corn has not been cleared for import to the EU. These delays are unreasonable and frustrating to us. My neighbors and I grow biotech corn because it makes sense. It’s environmentally friendly and cost effective. It makes controlling weeds and insect pests easier and less expensive. We are confident that the approval process in the U.S. is thorough and complete, assuring consumers of safety of their food and of the environment. We respect our customer’s right to establish standards for products of biotechnology but being denied access to important markets because of tardy, arbitrary and unsubstantiated health and safety claims is not helpful. We urge the WTO will provide for reviews of the product of biotechnology that are scientific, risk based, rational and predictable. Companies which seek approval of the new products should be reasonable expectations and applications will be considered on transparent and timely manner. Producers should be reasonable expectations that corn from seed approved for the U.S. will not be subject to barriers abroad. In conclusion, U.S. trade policy needs to be clear and consistently promote fair and open global trade to assure U.S. corn and its products full access to the world market. We need to be able to compete. Recent predictions for fair, strong Asian economy recovery over the next couple of years will mean nothing if important changes on the farm trade rules aren’t made during negotiations in Seattle this November. Thanks for this opportunity to express my views.

MS. KINNEY:

Thank you, Ron. Are there questions? Yes, Ambassador Baas.

AMBASSADOR BAAS:

Thank you. Mr. Olson, I enjoyed your presentation. Thank you very much. I have one sort of question on -- on corn -- biotech corn and I’m glad you raised that issue. We spent a lot of time, all of us, bashing the EU and trying to encourage them to give those approvals and we are probably as frustrated as you are with the inability to get those approvals. One thing they have suggested is that we, the United States agricultural producer, could segregate biotechnology corn, BT corn, from any wheat or any grain, for that matter, from others and therefore we could send non-biotech corn to them and we could send -- use biotech corn in the domestic market. My understanding, I’m not a farmer. My understanding is that this is a very difficult and perhaps an expensive thing because of elevators and containers and ships and all that thing -- all that sort of thing. I just wanted your appreciation of that difficulty, if it is difficult, from a farmer’s perspective.

MR. OLSON:

I believe it -- it wouldn’t be terrible difficult. It’s hard to get all farmers to -- to follow the rules. I mean do you regulate or control it, you know? If one farmer hauls in one load and contaminates everything else, how -- that’s the biggest problem I see.

AMBASSADOR BAAS:

Is testing at the elevator sort of an impossibility I suppose?

MR. OLSON:

I guess I’m not, you know -- I don’t know what -- I know you could test for it, but I don’t know what the process would be for sure. I would think it would probably an expensive process.

MS. KINNEY:

Thank you, Ron.

MR. OLSON:

Thank you.