ANNETTE DUBAS: Good afternoon. My name is Annette Dubas. I'm a farmer/rancher with my husband and family in western Nance County, 80 miles northeast of here.

I see independent producers right now as a sacrificial lamb on the alter of world trade. We need trade policy that makes the survival and the interest of independent producers a top priority. I'll be the first to admit that I am a novice in the understanding of world trade, but I know what I see. I know what I see in my community, I know what I see that is happening in our state, I know what I see happening across our country. And that is that rural communities are dying and farmers are going broke at a very rapid pace.

We are efficient producers, and we can and will produce what the market demands. What we can't do is compete with the corporate interests that are well represented at the table of farm policy and world trade.

In 1998, which was definitely a down year for livestock prices, the combined imports of Canadian and Mexican cattle totalled over 2 million head while our exports were only 285,000 head.

Our pork -- the pork that we imported was 4 million head while we exported 229,000 head. Now I only see those import numbers being used to depress the prices that we'll receive for what we can produce in our own country.

So in short I'll close by saying that I feel that good trade policy should be judged by what it does to support and encourage the survival of independent producers. And as I said just a moment ago, we need to be a top priority at the table of world trade.

Thank you.