TO EXPORT DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL & AG ATTACHES                                 
                                                                 Release No 0239.97
Remarks


                               OF
                     SECRETARY DAN GLICKMAN
          TO EXPORT DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL & AG ATTACHES
                ALEXANDRIA, VA -- JULY 17, 1997

INTRODUCTION
     
     Thank you. It's good to be here. I'd like to thank the Export
Development Council for having me, and for inviting USDA's attaches. We're
glad to have them here. It's a useful exercise for them and for the USDA
folks here, and I'm pleased that they get to spend some time with members of
Congress and our cooperators. 

     It's good to see the faces that are making American agriculture a
household presence around the world. 

     You know, I've been doing a lot of traveling lately ... London for the
International Grains Council ... Johannesburg with Vice President Gore ...
Mexico City with the President ... Rome for the World Food Summit. 

     It often seems that I get more attention when I'm abroad. Although,
I'm not sure it's always the right kind of attention. When I was in Rome, I
gave a speech on the importance of biotechnology. Afterwards, during my
press conference, protesters threw genetically modified soybeans at me, took
off all their clothes, and had things written on their bodies like  the
naked truth' and  no gene bean' ... at least that's what my staff who looked
tell me. I can't say for sure. 

     Just to give you a contrast, last weekend I attended the wedding of
Vice President Gore's eldest daughter here at the National Cathedral. As I
was walking out, there was all the paparazzi. I smiled for the cameras, and
a reporter asks me,  lot of politicians at this wedding, did you talk
politics?' I said,  No, it was a beautiful family wedding,' and started to
walk away. Then, the reporter yells,  wait, wait, wait.' I stop and turn
around, and he says,  Who are you?'

     I guess whether you're Secretary of Agriculture or a practitioner of
agriculture, you're not in this for the glory, although there certainly are
good reasons to be in agriculture these days. A lot of it's due to the hard
work of the people here in this room.

     You know, I talk a lot about trade to folks around the country and the
world, but standing up here in front of all of you, I feel a bit silly. 

It sort of reminds me of the Chicago Bulls rookie years ago ... I can't
remember his name now, but that's sort of the story. His career never really
took off. His one claim to fame was that he scored his first professional
point the same night his teammate -- Michael Jordan -- scored a record 69. 

                                     Asked later by a reporter what he thought about all this, the rookie smiled
and said,  I'll always remember this as the night Michael Jordan and I
combined for 70 points.' That's sort of how I feel right now. Whether you're
an attache or one of our cooperators, you go to work every day. You don't
get a lot of headlines or public accolades. But you make trade work for the
American farmer and the world.  
                                
                                
TRADE HISTORY
     You're leaders, and you're carrying on an important American legacy.
Just last month, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Marshall Plan. It
started out as America's effort to feed our war-torn European allies and
ended up a constructive effort which had as its heart the reestablishment of
trade between farmers and the cities. This Marshall called  the basis of
modern civilization.' He's right. Where food flows freely, strong, peaceful
relations usually flourish.

     1997 also marks the 50th birthday of GATT ... another critical step
away from isolationism and toward a more open, stable and prosperous world
... another sign of America's leadership. Soon after, we added freedom to
that spot on the horizon we were navigating toward. We started PL480 -- Food
for Peace -- from which our cooperator programs were born. This was an
effort to warm relations, free trade and eventually the world.

     We've come a long way. Today, Russia has gone from being the  evil
empire' to a strong, democratic ally, a recipient of Food for Peace
assistance, and a growing market for U.S. goods. From South Africa to South
America we're seeing freer markets and freer people marching hand in hand.
So much so that we've shifted our focus from emerging democracies, to
emerging markets, understanding that the 2 go hand in hand. 

     Now, we're reaching out beyond established markets. In the past 2
years, we've opened trade offices for Indonesia and the Caribbean. We've
established a USDA presence in Vietnam. Later this summer, we'll open
offices in Moscow and on the Mexican border. We're shifting more attention,
resources and people to places like Latin America and Asia where income,
population growth, and increasingly Western palates hold out huge
opportunities for U.S. farmers and ranchers ... if we choose to take them. 

MAJOR CHALLENGES

     By that I mean more than the fact that we need fast-track authority to
stay on a level playing field in our own backyard. We do, and President
Clinton's going to push hard for a vote by September.

     I mean more than the fact that we need to lay solid groundwork for the
1999 Uruguay Round negotiations. There are countries -- like Japan and in
the EU -- that want to put the brakes on freer agricultural trade. They say
that trade in food is different. I agree. Trade in food is the most
important commerce we do. For the benefit of our farmers, it should be fair,
and for all our people, it should move more freely.

     When I talk about choosing today, I mean even more than encouraging
China to become a responsible member of our community of nations. We just
finished a very passionate debate about continuing Most Favored Nation
trading status. But we know that the real battle is yet ahead: How and when
will China join the World Trade Organization? 1 in 5 people on this earth
live in China. The latest estimate says that if China plays by the same
rules as everyone else in the WTO, it would mean a $2.2 billion increase in
U.S. ag exports -- everything from apples to beef to the now-infamous
chicken feet. 

     
                                
     On President Clinton's watch, China will not enter the WTO until it
shows serious, sustained good faith in making free market reforms, including
in its agriculture sector which is very heavily controlled by the
government. We have seen progress. China, for example, has agreed to let
foreign grain traders deal directly with private importers once they're in
the WTO. That's a start. We need to encourage more progress, so we can see a
timely accession. 

     But even that is not what I refer to when I ask: Are we ready to
choose?

TRADE & THE HEARTLAND

     I'm talking about an even more important frontier in our trade
battles. I'm talking about the battle for America's own heart. 

     I see this all the time when I go out and talk to farmers. I talk
about strong farm incomes. Everyone's happy. I tell a joke about a 3-legged
chicken. Everyone laughs. I talk about the safety net, and conservation, and
risk management. They nod their heads ... then I get to trade, and -- as
often as not -- folks get quiet. They start shifting in their seats and
looking down at the ground.

They don't buy it. 

     Wall Street Journal columnist Gerald Seib calls this the  bookend'
theory of economics. He notes that in the United States, trade tends to be
wildly popular along the coasts while middle America and the South are wary.
Mr. Seib cited a poll that shows that while the coasts are excited about
their place in the global economy of the next 30 years, if the heartland had
it their way, they'd just assume take the economy of the last 3 decades. 

     From one side, I look at that, recall the farm slump of the  80s, and
scratch my head. But from the other side, it makes sense. Farmers do the
riskiest business known to man. They're newly vulnerable to the volatility
of the markets thanks to Freedom to Farm. They're cautious by nature.
They're skeptical. They're not going to be persuaded by rhetoric. Their
motto? Show me.

     We can do that. The facts are most certainly on our side. Fact: It's
no coincidence that farm incomes and exports are both near record highs.
Fact: Agriculture is a leading positive contributor to the U.S. trade
balance -- more than cars, more than computers. Fact: Ag exports have
increased 50% in the past 5 years. Fact: Farm exports support 1 million
good-paying U.S. jobs. Fact: Agriculture is twice as dependent as your
average U.S. industry on exports, and that number will only go up in the
future. Fact: 95% of our potential customer base lives in a foreign land.
Fact: Thanks to our aggressive free-trade agenda, there are more doors to
more U.S. food and fiber products open around the world than at any other
time in modern history. Simple fact: The world is going global. The world is
the key to America's future farm prosperity

     I know that you could lay all this out just as easily as I can. I know
that I'm preaching to the choir, but my point is: Maybe the choir needs to
sing a little louder. Spreading the gospel of free trade around the world is
important. But if we cannot sell it here at home, we will not get the
progress we need to complete our work and secure the long-term strength of
U.S. agriculture.

     We're in the business of farming. We of all people should not forget
to tend the grass roots.


CHALLENGES

     Part of the challenge is to make sure that when we talk about the
disputes we're working through, we take care to make clear that free trade
overall is a winner for agriculture. We're just working through the kinks.

     As much as we talk about the Phillipine pork dispute and the need for
a TCK protocol with China on wheat, we need to talk about Washington apples
now sold in China, and cherries going into Mexico. We can talk about our
willingness to be aggressive in challenging unfair trade barriers, of going
to the WTO to fight on the merits of sound science. But we should also point
out that we are winning those disputes: The ruling on hormone-treated beef
was a critical victory.

     We also need to get more folks exporting. There are 164,000 food
processors in the United States. You know how many export? 3%. We should try
and make that 30%. The more farmers we get exporting, the more farmers we
have understanding the importance of exports, and the more farm stability we
have. Absent new government controls on supply and demand, expanding trade
opportunities are what's going to get our producers through the peaks and
valleys of market volatility. 

     I recently read a letter from a wood processor who'd seen his exports
rise to six times their levels in the late  80s. He gave a lot of credit to
market development funds for getting him started. Today, he said, exports
are  the engine that pulls the train.' Without them, he said, he would not
be in business.

     We're on the right track. We must continue aggressively developing
markets. You won a critical victory in court recently. I'm glad (and not
just because I was the defendant). We're in this together ... pressing
forward on freer trade ... staying on top of all the bilateral issues ...
and insisting on sound science as the final arbiter of our disputes. I can't
stress enough how critical that is. Sound science won't guarantee we win
every fight, but it will help guarantee a fair fight, and that's all our
folks need to succeed. 

BIOTECHNOLOGY

     Freer trade and sound science are critical to the world's economy,
stability, environment and hunger. It's important that we see and talk about
this big picture.

     Take biotechnology. It's shaping up to be the first battle royale of
21st century world agriculture. For me, the issue's fairly simple. The first
question we must ask is: Are these products safe? Some of the best science
in the world has determined yes. We must continue to insist on arms-length
reviews. But given these assurances, what is our responsibility? 

     Well, we have a world population that in the next century is expected
to grow at the rate of a New York City every month, a Mexico every year,
perhaps even a China every decade. How do we feed all these people? We could
continue ripping up fragile land and forests, and pump more pesticides into
the ground. Or we could embrace the future -- technology that allows us to
dramatically increase yields ... using less water and less pesticides ...
crops that can grow under harsh weather extremes.

     When I was down in Mexico with the President, I broke off one day to
go visit CYMMET -- the international wheat and corn research center that
launched the Green Revolution. There's a display there for Norin-10 -- the
dwarfing gene for wheat -- over it, the message reads:  A single gene ...
has saved 100 million lives' ... think about that for a moment.

     In subsaharan Africa -- where hunger is most epidemic -- it is
estimated that a doubling of the projected increase in grain yields over the
next 10 years could cut the region's hungry by half -- making a 25% dent in
total world food aid needs. 
                                
          How can we turn our backs on the science that could achieve
that? 

     The United States very firm view is: We can't. We will lead this
fight. Our position is: As long as these products prove safe, we will not
tolerate their segregation. We will not allow passion to trump reason on
this one. The stakes for the world are simply too high. 

     We will fight this in the WTO and elsewhere if we have to. But if we
are to overcome people's skepticism, we have to not approach this as a
cookie-cutter trade issue. We have to educate folks,  demystify
biotechnology, talk about the importance of sound science, and emphasize the
promise these products hold out for the world.
                                

CONCLUSION
     
     The same can be said of trade. People are skeptical. We shouldn't
simply  tisk-tisk' them, but engage their minds. That's what Marshall did 50
years ago. He stood on the Harvard campus, and told his countrymen and
women,  whether we like it or not, we find ourselves, our nation, in a world
position of vast responsibility. We can act for our own good by acting for
the world's good.'

     Standing here talking to all of you, those words ring true still
today.

     These are exciting, challenging times. American agriculture is taking
its place in the world, and we are helping to build a better world -- a
peaceful, prosperous community of nations. Our legacy can be a great one.
Thank you all for the contributions you make every day to agriculture, our
nation and the world. Thank you.
                                 
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