41 



in a general way and a very specific way in specific markets, to be 

 able to provide the intelligence, the trade servicing, and the market 

 promotion. And those are just a few suggestions that I have. 



Mr. Stenholm. Go ahead. 



Mr. Bovee. I don't have any comments on this. 



Mr. Stenholm. I could not agree more. One of the first areas, 

 one of the first lobbying efforts that was put on me when I got here 

 in 1979 came from our international market consultants, pointing 

 out how weak our Government private cooperation policies and pro- 

 grams were. And you know it ain't got much better in 15 years. 

 That is sad. And part of it is philosophical. That is why I am ask- 

 ing the question of where we are in free trade. Because those who 

 believe in free trade believe in market oriented trade, believe in 

 less government, have to be willing to vote for some government 

 that works in a positive way. 



If our producers are going to compete with other governments, 

 our Government has to stand shoulder to shoulder. And yet philo- 

 sophically, this committee gets divided now about what role Gov- 

 ernment shall play. And if we get into that same argument in pol- 

 icy, we are going to guarantee that we will not be a player because 

 our producers won't have the tools because somebody's philosophy 

 is going to say Government is bad. And that is a danger that I hope 

 we can overcome. 



Mr. Penny. Thank you, Mr. Stenholm. 



I want to pursue a few questions with this panel before we call 

 forward the final witnesses for this morning. Mr. Bovee, the bank 

 cooperatives are involved in about 50 percent of all the guaranteed 

 credit sales presently? 



Mr. Bovee. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Penny [resuming chair]. I would like to discuss the use of 

 the credit programs for value-added exports and whether, as a fi- 

 nancial institution, you have an interest or a role to play in steer- 

 ing that program more in the direction of value-added exports. 



Mr. Bovee. Well, our customer base depends on — or the value 

 added that our customers are involved in are kind of in the semi- 

 processed, not real consumer-oriented products. And we believe 

 that there is probably a potential for those types of commodities 

 under the programs. They are not used currently to a great extent 

 because of the content that I believe Chris previously talked about, 

 the foreign content, the more value added you get, the more we run 

 into a problem with foreign content. 



Mr. Penny. There are restrictions on your ability to offer support 

 for value-added exports, given the customers you work with? 



Mr. BOVEE. It is difficult for us because of the unique legislation 

 that we have that restricts us to financing commodities that are 

 originated by our owners. And as you get into value added, you get 

 different types of commodities coming from a wider variety of 

 sources. It is very difficult for us. 



Mr. Penny. So by and large, the value added, if we use GSM 

 credits to a greater extent to facilitate the sale of value-added 

 items into the world market, we are not going to be working with 

 Cobank to get that done. 



Mr. Bovee. Not at the present. 



Mr. Penny. By and large? 



