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STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, A U.S. SENATOR 



FROM IOWA 



Senator Grassley. Thank you. 



NAFTA is very good for agriculture in Iowa. I may have some 

 misgivings about a narrow section of NAFTA here or there, but as 

 a whole for agriculture, it is very, very good. 



Iowa's secretary of agriculture, Dale Cochran, informed me today 

 that he and 40 other State secretaries of agriculture or commis- 

 sioners of agriculture are signing a letter in support of NAFTA. It 

 seems to me that when you look at the large number of secretaries 

 of agriculture who are supportive of NAFTA, they speak as well of 

 the importance of this agreement to agriculture as anybody in the 

 United States. They have surely got to know as much as we United 

 States Senators do about agriculture in their respective States. 

 Probably a larger share of those are Democrats than are Repub- 

 licans, would be my guess. I don't know for sure. 



Senator Lugar said that we have either got to export or we are 

 going to be up to our necks in corn and other commodities. That 

 is very true. In my State, 38 percent of our corn and 41 percent 

 of our beans are exported. If we don't export, we might as well just 

 shut down 40 percent of American agriculture. And you shut down 

 40 percent of American agriculture, and for every farmer that is 

 out of business because of that, you are going to lose six or seven 

 people beyond the farm that are connected. Their business or occu- 

 pations are connected to agriculture. 



When you look at it from the other end, if we export $1 billion 

 worth of products, we are going to create 20,000 jobs. And those 

 20,000 jobs pay on an average 13 percent above the national aver- 

 age. 



Every one of us has specific problems that need to be dealt with, 

 and I hope they can be dealt with. But on the whole, there isn't 

 any segment of the economy that benefits more from NAFTA than 

 agriculture, particularly agriculture in the Upper Midwest and 

 Ohio Valley. 



I support NAFTA. I thank the chairman for holding the hearings, 

 and I will put my statement in the record. I yield the floor. 



The Chairman. Thank you. 



Ambassador Kantor and Secretary Espy are trying to figure out 

 what the trend is in this committee. If you do, you be sure and let 

 me know. 



Ambassador Kantor. We are always optimists, Mr. Chairman. 



The Chairman. It escapes me so far. Senator Craig. 



STATEMENT OF HON. LARRY E. CRAIG, A U.S. SENATOR FROM 



IDAHO 



Senator Craig. Mr. Chairman, I will skew the trend. 



Mr. Secretary, Mr. Ambassador, thank you both for being with 

 us today to discuss this issue and respond to questions. If we 

 pegged this moment in time, we know that agriculture is successful 

 in this country because it is trading today. It will trade no less to- 

 morrow with or without NAFTA. 



The $7 billion surplus with Mexico today is without NAFTA. It 

 is because the Mexicans have dropped a substantial number of 



