MR. TAYLOR: Thank you. Welcome to Montana, Panel. I am testifying here for Helen Waller. I'll read her statement here. I'm a Circle area farmer, a member of the steering committee for the Campaign to Reclaim Rural America and the past Chair of the Northern Plains Resource Council.

Due to circumstances here on the farm, I'm asking Don Taylor, who is a member of the steering committee for the CRRA, to read this testimony into record.

And I am Don Taylor, I farm and ranch 18 miles north and west of Lewistown. I am one of the founders of Lewistown Farm Reform, a platform for the actual producer. We like to call ourselves the real people to be able to speak up and be heard. This movement evolved into a national movement called the Campaign to Reclaim Rural America, an awareness program, an eight-point petition drive, which has the signatures from the members of virtually every ag group in this room and rural Americans from coast to coast and border to border.

This movement has the support from non-ag groups such as the state FLCIO, Montana Association of Churches, state governments, environmentalists, the Montana Wilderness Association, Bankers, et cetera.

I originally came here today as a listener and to learn. On behalf of the Campaign to Reclaim, this is from Helen.

On behalf of the Campaign to Reclaim Rural America, I would like to thank the United States Trade Representatives and the United States Department of Agriculture for the opportunity to testify today. The Campaign to Reclaim Rural America is a grassroots movement organized to bring attention to the economic problems that are bankrupting farmers, ranchers, and main street business people throughout Rural America, and its impact on America as a whole.

While the World Trade Organizatin operates within the scope of the general agreement on tariffs and trade, GATT, and the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, it's obvious that those agreements were crafted to allow giant corporations to shop the world over for labor and commodities. This conflict is about power; unrestrained power handed over to multinational corporations that pit one company's productive capabilities against another's to drive down the cost of raw materials and labor on a global basis.

The effects of the so-called Free Trade Agreements is further concentration of the world's wealth in the hands of a few. If a government deliberately oppresses its people, we call it tyranny, but if a corporation does it, we call it efficiency. The same multinational corporations that benefit from the WTO, also have tremendous power in congress to establish domestic farm policy. It is wrong to depress the price of domestically consumed grain based on the fact that 35 percent of the US production is subject export.

The Campaign to Reclaim Rural America calls for remedies based on an eight-point plan. If enacted, it would provide some emergency measure to keep at-risk farm and ranch operations from being liquidated.

Beyond that, we call for the reform of international and domestic markets to re-establish competition among buyers in the marketplace.

We ask for vigorous anti-trust investigations into the concentration of ownership, meat packing, grain handling, processing, and retailing.

We believe the consuming public deserves to know where their food comes from through Country of Origin Labeling and is entitle to strict inspection of imported agriculture products to assure compliance with standards equivalent to the US standards for food safety, environmental and worker protection.

We call for the mandatory price reporting of livestock and grain.

And we request for the 1999 WTO negotiations on agriculture be carried out from the producers' perspective rather than the usual emphasis on export.

Further, we request that the Clinton Administration's negotiated goals and objectives be made public for review and comment prior to the Seattle round of the WTO ag negotiations.

And finally, let it never be said that you do not know about the level of anger and resentment aimed at a system that gives unfair advantage to the buyers of our labor and the fruits of our labor while we struggle to maintain a respectful living for our families through the efforts of the powerful to globalize us. You have taken from us the dignity and pride of any member of sovran nation, of many sovran states.

(Whereupon, Mr. Taylor quoted newspaper articles.)

Why is it if a government deliberately oppresses its people we call it tyranny, if a corporation does it, we call it efficiency? I urge you to reevaluate provisions in the WTO that would further concentrate wealth in the hands of a few a multinational corporations. A former supreme court justice once said, "We can have democracy in this country or we can have wealth in the hands of a few. We can't have both." Thank you from Helen Waller.

MR. NELSON: Thank you, Don. Thank you, Helen. Panel, any questions or comments for Don?

MR. GALVIN: Just a quick observation that I don't think you'll have to wait until Seattle to see our stated objectives for the next round. In fact, we outlined some of those earlier today in the slide presentation, and we make a real effort to put that kind of material up on our FAS web site. And I would encourage you, if you get a chance, it's got a lot of good trade statistics and that sort of information as well. But we have a trade policy section in there so you can look to see what our objectives are for the next round, things like getting rid of export subsidies and that sort of thing.