And it's my job today, as Ralph said, to try to make sure that this goes along smoothly. And so let me explain how this is going to work or how we hope it's going to work. Each presenter is going to have five minutes to present and then the panel will have an opportunity to ask questions. And so if you look close at the schedule, it looks like you have eight minutes to speak. Well, I just want you to know you don't really. You have about five minutes to speak and then some time for the panelists to ask questions.

I know that there's folks who have brought written testimony along, and in some cases, that's longer than five minutes, so we would ask that you summarize the testimony so that you only take five minutes in your presentation. But we do have Alan Hrapskwy. Alan, would you stand up, please, and wave to the folks? Alan will be collecting everybody's written testimony. So whether or not you get to present that here today, it will become part of the record and so folks will have a full chance to look over everything you would have liked to have said.

Now, the way this is going to work is that we have a timer light up here, and to make it simple for those of us in Montana, it's like a stoplight, which we don't have a lot of. Here's how the stoplight is going to work: The timer will be green for the first four minutes of your presentation, and then in the last minute, it will turn yellow, and then when you're done, it will turn red. Now, I want you to know that Janna here, who's going to be helping me with this and will be timing you, is noted as being pretty darned tough. So just a warning to anybody that might think that they have an opportunity to speak extra, they will have to deal with her and I don't think you want to do that.

Seriously, I would ask that everybody respect the rights of everybody to have a chance to share their thoughts with us today. We have a lot of folks on the agenda and so we want to make sure that everybody gets a chance to speak. In order to keep things moving along, we've got a couple of speaking places up in front here, and I appreciate Marta and Dave, who are the first folks on the first panel, going up there right now. What we'd like to do is I will list the folks in each of the groups, if you look at the agenda that was handed out, it lists the groups and it lists the speaking order. So everybody should know when they're going to speak approximately and who they're going to follow.

What I will do is I will call the speaker and ask them to speak, and then when they finish, I would ask them to, please, after the panelists have had an opportunity to ask their questions, to go back into the audience. And then I will then call the next speaker and the person who is going to follow them. And I would ask that the person who is going to follow the speaker come on up so we can keep this moving along.

There's going to be two breaks today, that is, if we're all good and keep on schedule, at 10:30 to 10:45, and another one this afternoon from 2:20 to 2:35. We will have a lunch hour, if we run into the noon hour, it means we won't get a full noon hour for lunch because we have to start right away this afternoon at one o'clock to keep things on schedule. There are a number of places here in the Student Union Building for folks to eat and get a quick lunch, so there isn't really too good a reason not to get back on time.

For folks who are representing the media here today, and we really appreciate them joining us, you are invited to participate in a briefing session during the noon hour. It will take place in this room. I would like to introduce, and I don't have my eye on her, Marlene Phillips from the Foreign Agriculture Service Staff, who you will be working with on this briefing. So if you're wondering where to go at noon, just keep an eye on Marlene and she'll make sure that you have a chance to get together with the folks you want to get together with.

I do appreciate that we have sign language interpreters here today. For those of you out in the audience, they're down on the far right end of the platform up here to give those who are -- who have a little difficulty seeing or hearing to participate in the session as well. We are recording the session, so everybody's remarks will be part of the record, and we appreciate their help today.

So with that, finally we will go ahead and get started. Let me go through the first group of speakers again so that everybody knows who's in the first group. When this group gets done, we will take our first break. We have Marta Ferguson, who is the Central Field Representative for Congressman Rick Hill; Dave McClure, who is the President of the Montana Farm Bureau Federation; Leonard Schock, who is the Chair of the Montana Wheat & Barley Committee; Mary Schuler, who is the National First Vice President of Women Involved in Farm Economics; Ken Siroky, Montana producer from Roy; Ken Maki, Montana President of the Farmers Union; Ralph Peck, Director of Montana Department of Agriculture; and John Antle of the Trade Research Center here at MSU.

So with that, Marta, thanks very much for joining us and appreciate you and Dave starting us out.

MS. FERGUSON: Good morning. I wanted to thank you for bringing this listening session to Rural America. And I want to especially thank you for having this session in Montana. Thank you, also, to all those responsible for organizing this event, including Montana State University and Montana's Department of Agriculture. I apologize that I cannot attend this session in person. I have asked Marta Ferguson, my Montana Central Field Representative, to submit my statement for the record.

Montana depends on agriculture, a renewable resource generating annual cash receipts of nearly $2.5 billion. It leads all other industries in providing the base for our economy. More than 100,000 Montanans make their living either directly or indirectly from farming and ranching, about 1 in every 5 jobs.

Montana agriculture has experienced some very tough years. When I visit with other members of the congress, I explain the plight of agriculture producers with this simple example, "In 1978, feeder cattle sold in the high 60 cents and a pickup truck cost less than $8,000. Today, feeder cattle still bring somewhere in the 60-cent range, but pickup trucks cost over $20,000."

Statistics show farm household income holding fairly steady, but only because more and more families have realized that at least one spouse needs to take a job in town in order to make ends meet. Unfortunately, many experts predict little or no improvement in 1999.

There are many reasons for this economic downturn in agriculture country. Financial problems in Asia, Russia, and South America have dried up markets. A strong dollar makes our products more expensive relative to our foreign competitors. American farmers and ranchers rely more heavily on foreign markets and workers than any other sector of the economy. One out of every three acres of cultivated farmland in the United States grows for export. Yet ag exports have expanded at a slower pace than has trade for American manufactured goods and services.

In my opinion, part of the fault lies in the lack of understanding of agricultural issues by current trade negotiators. For example, we must have agriculture trade reciprocity with our neighbors to the north. There was much fanfare about the record of understanding between the US and Canada announced last December, yet their agreement left in place many of the problems associated with NAFTA. The people who negotiated this agreement either don't understand the trade problem or they intentionally disregard critical issues.

We also need transparency of wheat pricing in countries like Canada. It is not acceptable to me that the Canadian Wheat Board continues to resist opening their books while American producers suffer from the steady influx of Canadian grain. State trading enterprises and tariff rate quotas must be closely examined and addressed in this round of negotiations.

American agriculture cannot compete with foreign government-owned and -operated industries.

If steps cannot be taken to lessen the impacts of the STEs and TRQs, then concession should be made to the United States. In order for the WTO to be an effective agent between trading countries, the WTO must strictly and quickly enforce trade violations. The recent dispute between the European Union and the United States over beef imports into that region has been an attest of the effectiveness of WTO rulings. We need to make sure that in future negotiations, significant consequences follow trade violations.

The next round of negotiations must further define sanitary/phytosanitary restrictions. Look for science-based restrictions and cases where SPS is used as a tool to restrict fair trade, and then look for ways to seriously address violations. The Administration must also take steps to protect brand identity and health and safety standards. The USDA grade stamp is a perfect example of both brand identity and high health and safety standards. We must not allow other countries to hide behind the brand identity and the health standards that our producers and consumers have spent millions creating.

Agriculture issues will be some of the most difficult issues to address in the next round of negotiations. However, we must aggressively pursue fair and equitable trade regarding agriculture. Those representing the United States at the Seattle Round must fight to eliminate direct and indirect subsidies that cause over production and disrupt. We must not fall to early harvest temptations.

Given the current situation of agriculture, the next round of WTO negotiations will play a critical role in the future of American farms and ranches. Do not allow the opportunity for equitable trade to slip away. It is also essential that the Administration aggressively pursue anti-dumping measures against those who seek to shift their problems on our markets.

Thank you, I'm getting flashed. And I have a written testimony so I'll give it to Alan. Thank you. Sincerely, Congressman Rick Hill, Representative for all of Montana.