And that is why we need to continue to support innovative uses for agricultural products, in the United States and abroad. These are some of the things that must be done here at home, in changing the policies of our own government. More complex are the problems farmers face abroad, in exporting to foreign markets. Americans account for just 4 percent of the world s population. Clearly the farmer s greatest challenge and opportunity is to gain ground in the markets that feed the other 96 percent.
American farmers are without rival in their ability to produce and compete.
Often the only thing that stands in your way are trade barriers built by foreign governments and tolerated by this Administration. They will not be tolerated in my administration. The next president must reclaim the authority of the executive to negotiate new trade agreements. Every president from 1975 to 1994 has had that fast-track authority, until this president let it lapse. It is a powerful tool in prying open foreign markets, and never have we needed it more.