***Committee on Agribusiness***

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**Overview**

The Committee onAgribusiness is the eighth committee under the Gore-ChernomyrdinCommission (GCC). The Committee provides a binational frameworkunder which the governments of the United States and Russia canopenly discuss issues such as agribusiness business and tradedevelopment, agricultural reform, and mutually beneficialagricultural cooperation.

The Committee firstmet in June 1995. Full Committee meetings take placeapproximately every six months, immediately prior to thefull GCC meetings. Meeting locations alternate between the U.S.and Russia.

**Overview ofthe Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission (GCC)**

|  | The U.S.-Russian Joint Commission        on Economic and Technological Cooperation is co-chaired        by U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Russian Prime Minister        Viktor Chernomyrdin. The Commission provides a framework        for promoting partnership between the United States and        Russia. These include a shared commitment to democracy        and human rights, support for market economies and the        rule of law, and international peace and stability. 

The        Commission currently has eight committees chaired at the        cabinet level and several working groups looking at        specific issues including: space, energy, trade,        investment, commercial cooperation, defense conversion,        health, science, the environment, and agribusiness.

President        Clinton and President Yeltsin created the Commission at        the Vancouver Summit in April 1993. 

For more        information on overall GCC activities, please go to *http://www.usia.gov/regional/bnc/bnc.htm*** |
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**Structureof the Committee on Agribusiness**

The GCC Committee onAgribusiness is co-chaired by Secretary of Agriculture DanGlickman on the U.S. side, and the Deputy Prime Minister for theAgro-Industrial Complex Viktor Khlystun on the Russian side. 

There are fourWorking Groups under the Committee:

| Agricultural        Reform and Privatization         U.S.co-chair Christian Foster        USDA                | Agribusiness        Machinery Building         U.S. co-chair Michael Copps        Department of Commerce                               |
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| Market        Access and Trade         U.S. co-chair Randy Zeitner,         USDA/Foreign Agricultural Service | Agricultural        Research, Education and Extension         U.S. co-chair Dr. Rick Bennett        USDA/Agricultural Research Service |

In addition to theU.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment and the Department of Commerce are actively involvedin the Committee on Agribusiness.

**Goals**

The following goalsare supportive of the Administration’s effort to move oureconomic relationship with Russia from one of assistance to oneof commercial partnership. The four overall themes for theCommittee’s work over the coming years are:

| 1. | **Business****Development**(i.e. identifying the obstacles to        investment, identification and promotion of specific        promising joint venture initiatives and trouble shooting        for U.S. agricusiness projects. Specific training        activities may also support these efforts.) |
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| 2. | **Market        Access/Trade Development** (key objectives are        maintaining access for U.S. products and broadening the        range of U.S. agricultural exports to Russia.)                                                                                                                   |
| 3. | **Russian        Agricultural Reform**(Land reform,, the development of        various models of land ownership and development of a        private food processing and distribution system all        remain as critical challenges)                                                                 |
| 4. | **Other        Mutually Beneficial Agricultural Cooperation**        (Cooperative work in the area of agriculture that, while        not directly related to the above three points,        nontehless produces benefits to both sides.)                                                              |

**Contacts**

|  | Sally Shelton-Colby    | Assistant Administrator,        Agency for International Development | [email protected] | (202) 712-1190 |
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|  | Christopher Goldthwait | General Sales Manager, FAS                                           | [email protected] | (202) 720-5173 |
|  | Elizabeth Sellers      | FAS                                                                  | [email protected] | (202) 690-1844 |
|  | Kimberly Eaglin        | FAS                                                                  | [email protected] | (202) 720-0885 |

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**Reports**

|  | Agribusiness Committee        Quarterly Update (June 1998)                                              |          |
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|  | U.S.        Agricultural and Economic Publications Translated into        Russian for Training Programs | (.pdf format) |
|  | Technical        Assistance Programs for Russian Agriculture                                            | (.pdf format) |
|  | Farmer-to-Farmer        Program Reports                                                                 |          |
|  | Accomplishments of the        Agribusiness Committee during GCC-10                                      |          |
|  | Accomplishments of the        Agribusiness Committee during GCC-9                                       |          |
|  | Accomplishments        of the Agribusiness Committee during GCC-8                                       |          |
|  | Accomplishments        of the Agribusiness Committee during GCC-6                                       |          |

 

|  | *Several of the documents listed above        are in Adobe Acrobat [.pdf format.] Click on the icon if        you need to download the Adobe Acrobat reader used to        view the file.* |
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| *Last modified: Wednesday, July 22, 1998* |