GREAT FALLS, Mont. – Montana senator Max Baucus wants to make sure American agriculture gets a fair hearing at the world podium when 134 nations gather in Seattle, Washington Nov. 30 to discuss trade.
“The agriculture trade situations we face in the world are unfair from our point of view,” he said.
Baucus, a popular senior Democrat senator, has established himself as a hawk when it comes to protecting the interests of American farmers.
“We have to negotiate harder so we aren’t taken for suckers like we were in the past,” he said.
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“We have to make sure agriculture is front and centre and make it very clear these issues have to be resolved.”
He spoke to Montana farm leaders from Washington via satellite. They gathered in Great Falls to learn how the next round of world trade negotiations might affect them.
Baucus said it would be better if the United States could take action single-handedly against countries that do not play by international rules. Instead, its hands are tied by the world trade agreement and must learn to work within those boundaries.
Agriculture economist Myles Watts of Montana State University said American farmers must pursue export markets if they hope to survive.
“We can fight it or we can orchestrate it so we can get some benefits from it.”
The U.S. government has a wish list heading into the Seattle meeting.
It wants improved market access through tariff reductions, elimination of export subsidies, improved methods to settle disputes, elimination of state trading organizations like the Australian and Canadian wheat boards, and guarantees that sanitary and phytosanitary agreements are not broken.
Seattle sets the stage for talks that could stretch out to 2004.
On export subsidies, the U.S. wants export subsidies and restrictions such as export taxes and embargoes removed. However, it does not want to give up its export credit program or food aid.
U.S. Department of Agriculture economist Joe Gaulder said that in addition to export subsidies, domestic subsidies also need to come down.
Sanitary and phytosanitary agreements should not be reopened beyond a narrow discussion on global standards for biotechnology, he said. The EU wants the sanitary and phytosanitary agreement reopened because it lost on a few rulings such as the beef hormone issue, he added.
The U.S. faces two major problems going into this round.
President Clinton does not have fast track legislation, which gives the administration sole responsibility for negotiating trade agreements. It also forces Congress to accept or reject an agreement without amendments.
