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Mr. CONDIT. I would like to begin with the questioning. Mr. 

 Goldthwait, what is your feeling about Mr. Mendelowitz' comment 

 regarding the two items where you have been somewhat deficient, 

 govemmentwide budget planning, and I forget what the other one 

 was? 



Mr. Mendelowitz. Setting the govemmentwide priorities for ex- 

 port promotion. 



Mr. CONDIT. Can you make a comment to those? 



Mr. Goldthwait. I think that I have outlined in my statement 

 our view on what our priorities are with respect to agricultural pro- 

 motion. And we will be trying to work more on developing the spe- 

 cifics that need to go along with those views. I have talked, for ex- 

 ample, about the focus on the newly emerging markets, both for 

 high-value products and for specific regions. We have a lot of work 

 to do in order to effectively target those markets. 



We have to meet with the importers, we have to be in contact 

 and working with our exporters, we have to review the program 

 tools that we have and determine whether or not they are, first of 

 all, the right tools for those markets because there are some very 

 different characteristics in markets like China, or like Indonesia, 

 vis-a-vis markets like Japan or Western Europe or Canada. And, 

 of course, I can't forget Mexico, where obviously we have some very 

 important concerns and some very great opportunities as a result 

 of NAFTA. 



So we will be undertaking all the work that we can, as quickly 

 as we can, to look at whether our programs indeed do need to be 

 retargeted and whether or not, for example, in the upcoming farm 

 bill, there needs to even be some legislative changes. So we intend 

 to be full participants in that process. 



These kinds of reviews are done on an ongoing basis but we are 

 going to add some new emphasis to them at this particular point, 

 and that will feed into our contribution to the TPCC. 



Mr. CONDIT. So in short, those two points, you think that you are 

 dealing with those and that over a period of time, hopefully, a short 

 period of time, you will be up to speed in both areas; is that cor- 

 rect? 



Mr. Goldthwait. Yes, exactly. There have been some — as the co- 

 chairman indicated in his opening statement, and my statement 

 echos it, there have been some veiy profound changes in the mar- 

 ket that we are looking at over the past year. And we need to make 

 sure that we adjust to those changes. 



Mr. CONDIT. Mr. Mendelowitz, you commented in your testimony 

 that FAS has some shortcomings in its administration of the MPP 

 program. Congress worked to require some reforms to the program 

 this year. Do you believe this will satisfy youi concern, what we 

 have already done? I mean, does that make any improvement, in 

 your opinion, on the program? 



Mr. Mendelowitz. I believe that the congressional direction pro- 

 vided for the program is a very important step in the right direc- 

 tion. This is a significant program relative to what the Federal 

 Government spends on export promotion, there is a lot of money 

 committed. And we believe it is important that the potential good 

 results that can be achieved through this program are achieved 



