46 



agreements aggressively and fairly, as you have been doing, I think 

 that that continues to increase the confidence here. And so I en- 

 courage you to continue. I think of myself as one that wants as 

 much free and open trade as we can have, and I think that this 

 is historic. I think it would be tragic if we were to see this agree- 

 ment rejected, tragic in terms of all of the relationships here in the 

 hemisphere, and, indeed, in terms of our position in the world eco- 

 nomically. 



Ambassador Kantor. I agree. And, by the way, we did not give 

 up our Section 22 rights to Canada with regard to peanuts or other 

 products under the NAFTA. 



Senator Boren. I understand. Thank you. 



Ambassador Kantor. Thank you, Senator, very much. 



The Chairman. We will stand in recess for 15 minutes while we 

 go and vote. I know these witnesses have to leave. I must say that 

 I appreciate very much, Mr. Ambassador, the amount of time you 

 have spent here this afternoon. I know that you had to readjust 

 your own personal schedule to do so. But I think with the combina- 

 tion of both the Finance Committee members and Agriculture Com- 

 mittee members, it was well worth doing. 



Mr. Moos and Mr. O'Mara, and Secretary Espy, I say the same 

 thing to you gentlemen. You have spent a great deal of time. I ap- 

 preciate that, and the time that the Secretary spent with me pri- 

 vately before the hearing. 



We will stand in recess for a few minutes. 



[Recess.l 



Senator Conrad [presiding]. This hearing before the Senate 

 Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry will come to 

 order. 



We first of all want to apologize to these panels. As you can see, 

 the first panel went far beyond what was anticipated, and that was 

 perhaps to be expected given the importance of this hearing and 

 the witnesses who were appearing. But we have a great interest in 

 what the members of these panels have to say as well. 



Given the lateness of the hour, we will ask you to make your 

 statements part of the record and to summarize your testimony. 



The chairman is not going to be able to return. Because of events 

 in Russia today, the chairman has to meet with the President very 

 soon, and obviously that has also thrown an additional curve at us. 

 But notwithstanding that, we will be very interested in the testi- 

 mony of the members of this panel: Mr. Bob Foster, the vice chair- 

 man, Board of Directors of Agri-Mark; Mr. Lee Swenson, the presi- 

 dent of the National Farmers Union; Mr. Mike Bauerle, immediate 

 past chairman of the Nebraska Corn Development, Utilization, and 

 Marketing Board; Mr. Dean Kleckner, president of the American 

 Farm Bureau Federation; Dr. Martha Roberts, deputy commis- 

 sioner for food safety of Florida Department of Agriculture; and Mr. 

 Roger Stuber, president of the National Cattlemen's Association, 

 who hails from a very important State — in fact, perhaps the most 

 important State, the State of North Dakota. 



Welcome to you all, and please proceed. We will begin in the 

 order provided with Mr. Foster. Thank you for being here. The 

 committee thanks you for your patience. 



