MR. ANTLE: Thank you very much. I had a couple overheads to use -- well, here comes the overhead projector. I just have a few very brief comments on behalf of Montana State University. I would like to welcome the distinguished visitors from Washington and the rest of the public to this important event.

I was having a conversation a week or so ago with one of our producers about trade policy and I said, "By the way, next week there's this WTO listening session at MSU. People from Washington are coming out to find out what you think about these issues." And he said, "Really? That's different."

And so I think it is different and I'd like to just again commend you for coming here and listening to what people think in the region.

This is important to the region for a number of reasons, and I would like to just share a few thoughts with you from a regional perspective. First, the economy of the northern plains region remains one of the most dependant on agriculture of any region in the US. This is a fact that I think, perhaps, those of you who aren't so familiar with this part of the world don't realize. But, for example, our farm income opportunities in this region are much more limited than in the Midwest and the Southeast. Agriculture is the leading industry of the region, and two commodities, grains and livestock, dominate agriculture. That's an important fact for us to keep in mind. Second, grain producers are exporters, and trade is increasingly important to the livestock sector. Therefore, continuing the progress begun in the Uruguay Round of the GATT towards an open, competitive international trading system is essential to agriculture, but more generally to the economy of this region. That's a fact we have to keep in mind as well.

The Trade Research Center at MSU has its mission to provide people like yourselves with objective data analysis with which you can make informed decisions about these issues. And, Jim, if you wanted to just put up the first slide there as I proceed. And one of the things I'd like to do is just let you know that we have conducted a number of studies over the last several years related to the issues that you're going to be talking about here today including NAFTA, GATT, and issues related to wheat, beef, and other commodities that are important to the region, and we have a number of publications, some of them we called policy issues papers, other ones are single-page briefings and conference proceedings. They're all available on our home page which is given up there, it's WWW.TRCMontana.EDU.

As we will, no doubt, hear today from representatives of agriculture in this region, there are important concerns that the current unfavorable economic conditions in US Agriculture and this region's agriculture are caused by trade. And we would just like to make two points in this regard.

First, research shows clearly that prices in grain and livestock markets are determined nationally and internationally. And recent grain and livestock prices would prevail irrespective of the relatively small amount of grain and livestock trade between Canada and the United States.

Second, because this region and the US stands to gain so much from progress in the upcoming WTO round, we should not let regional disputes, such as the recent ones between Canada and the United States over livestock and grain trade issues, prevent progress in the WTO. That's a concern that we have that regional disputes could disrupt the making progress in the WTO that we think is so important. Jim, if you could just put up the other slide.

I'd just like everybody to know and take this opportunity to advertise a little bit more that on November 1st and 2nd of this year, we'll be sponsoring a conference on the WTO negotiations that will focus on issues for agriculture in this region. And we're producing a booklet manuscript of studies about that topic that we'll be publishing before that. And so we would invite you all to also come and participate in that conference which will be held in Great Falls. And, again, welcome to MSU and we look forward to a very productive session. Thank you.