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I am Robert E. Barrow, the duly-elected Master of the 

 National Grange, which has offices at 1616 "H" St., N.W,, Wash- 

 ington, D.C. The National Grange represents approximately 3 00,000 

 farmers and other residents of rural America in over 4,000 local 

 communities across the United States. 



The central problem for every free market economy is to keep 

 supply and demand in balance. Agriculture has been struggling 

 with supply and demand, in spite of production control programs, 

 for over 60 years, and no end is in sight unless we have a 

 structural increase in demand. 



Agriculture needs new customers and new markets in order to 

 grow and prosper. Where can we find them? For starters, we can 

 look south to Mexico; then beyond to Central and South America. 



The National Grange has followed the development of the 

 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) since its inception 

 more than two years ago. As a member of the Agricultural Policy 

 Advisory Committee on Trade, I have personally been involved in 

 the events that led up to the three Heads of State initiating the 

 Agreement in the late summer of 1992. 



The voting delegates to the National Grange's 126th Annual 

 Convention strongly supported the NAFTA. In 1991, in the early 

 stages of the negotiations between the United States, Canada, and 

 Mexico, the Grange adopted the following resolution: 



"The National Grange supports the efforts of the 



United States, Mexico, and Canada to reach a North 



American Free Trade Agreement. To provide protection to 



