w 



37 



tions. Some of the other programs that they are looking at, like 

 supplier credit without a bank, would have to be developed. 



But there is a demand for credit in different areas and the pro- 

 gram doesn't always fit with the requirements of what the demand 

 for credit is. And so I think this process has started and has been 

 going on. We had a formal meeting to exchange ideas, to get start- 

 ed. The GSM threw out some of their thinking, asked us to respond 

 to that, and as a group we plan to do that. 



Mr. Allard. Ms. Patrick. 



Ms. Patrick. I would have to agree with one of the comments 

 that Carol made, and that was that large companies have resources 

 that are available to them. We can do analysis. We can do any 

 number of activities to develop markets, but smaller exporters don't 

 have the same resources that we have. And farmers don't nec- 

 essarily have access to the same kinds of commercial services that 

 we do. Therefore, what FAS does is very important. 



There are a few vestiges of old policies, though, that are left on 

 the books that I might throw out that aren't necessary anymore. 

 Do we make use of them? Yes, they are available. Do we need 

 them? Probably not. For example, we continue to report large ex- 

 port sales to the Department of Agriculture on a timely basis. 

 Those kinds of regulations went into place back in the boom years 

 of the 1970's, the latter part of the 1970's. 



Do we have large sales that are occurring in the same way, are 

 they booming and busting the market the way they used to? No, 

 they are not. Is it necessary to keep it in place? Probably not. So 

 there are information requirements, there are regulatory require- 

 ments, that were created in a completely different environment 

 that probably aren't particularly well suited to the 1990's. 



Mr. Allard. Thank you very much. And I appreciate your forth- 

 right answer on that, because we can't help make this a better 

 process unless you are straightforward and let us know what needs 

 to be done to correct these. 



I think you all make some very good points in your comments. 

 So I think you began to lay out some things that this subcommittee 

 can think about in trying to make these programs more responsive 

 to your needs. 



Let me go ahead and recognize Mr. Stenholm. 



Mr. Stenholm. Same question to the three of you, to get a base- 

 line of where we are. On a scale of 1 to 10, how free is the world 

 market today, and how much will it be freer after GATT and 

 NAFTA are implemented? 



Ms. Brookins. 



Ms. BROOKINS. I am going to answer it a little differently than 

 just looking at the Uruguay Round, Congressman. I think what we 

 have to be looking at, the freedom of the world market, in a macro 

 sense, in the fact that countries around the world who have been 

 living under, individuals who have been living under state trading, 

 under communism, under state monopoly structures which totally 

 impeded the growth of those markets, and kept those countries 

 really out of the global trading system, that this is probably a de- 

 velopment that is going to swamp the effect over time of the Uru- 

 guay Round and efforts we took in the Uruguay Round. 



