overall direction that — ^under the guidance of Secretary Espy, 

 Under Secretary Moos — ^we have been developing for our export 

 policy and our export programs. Then I will offer just a couple of 

 brief comments about the specific questions that you posed to us. 



Turning to the first of those issues, I think it is important to 

 focus on mission for a number of reasons. You have alluded to some 

 of the very important changes that we see going on around us in 

 the world in which we are trying to do our market promotion, and 

 of course we have a new administration and a new Secretary of Ag- 

 riculture who is very much dedicated to making these programs 

 serve the farmers, the exporters, aind indeed contribute to the well- 

 being of all Americans through maintaining the reasonable food 

 prices that we see prevailing. So as we look at mission, we look at 

 a broadening as we combine two agencies into a new agency. 



The export goals that we have in FAS will remain absolutely 

 paramount and the service that they 3deld to our producers will 

 guide us, as well as the services that we render to our various 

 other clienteles. But there will be some broadening of this mission. 

 There will be in the new agency equally important services to 

 American producers that are derived through science and techno- 

 logical exchginges. And I think increasingly we are seeing an envi- 

 ronment in which the general warmth or coldness of the agricul- 

 tural relationship across the board contributes to a situation or an 

 environment in which our exports do better or worse. 



And I think that general recognition of the importance of the 

 overall agricultural relationship is a very important new factor that 

 we will be focusing on increasingly. 



If I might comment very briefly about the overall direction of our 

 export policy, I will note that in a recent speech, the Secretary out- 

 lined three themes: He spoke of restoring the competitive role of 

 our bulk commodities. He spoke also of an increased focus not only 

 on the emerging democracies that we see around the world, but 

 also on the broader range of emerging markets that are going to 

 be important to us. And I will have a number of things to say about 

 that in a moment. And the third point I would describe in some 

 depth is that broader agricultural relationship that I alluded to a 

 moment ago. 



With respect to the first of these goals, we see a situation in 

 which our bulk commodity exports still face some very serious ob- 

 stacles. We must remain competitive and we intend to with respect 

 to encountering subsidies that are limits our competitors put before 

 us. We intend to continue the pressure that we see with respect to 

 trade policy initiatives that will level some of those barriers, and 

 we intend to tackle some very specific trade distorting measures 

 that have been headaches on a bilateral basis for a long time. 



I will note in this regard, the Secretary's success not only in the 

 recent visit to Japan, but also the commitment by the Chinese Min- 

 ister of Agriculture to try to work with us to resolve the long-stand- 

 ing TCK fungus issue. 



Turning to emerging markets, we mean several things. We mean 

 new markets for new products, especially high-value products, be- 

 cause these products are accounting for the largest share of the 

 growth in world markets that we see around us today. But we also 

 mean a focus on the regions of the world that are the most rapidly 



