Okay, thank very much. As you can probably tell, we're about a half hour ahead of schedule. We would like to go ahead and call Panel number 4 at this time and move right along into that section.

Sit in speaker order, that would be great.

Great. Thank you very much. Moving right along, we have Mr. Ben Goodwin with the California Beet Growers. Thank you very much for coming.

MR. GOODWIN: Good morning. My name is Ben Goodwin. I'm the Executive Manager of the California Beet Growers Association.

Today I'm here representing over 500 farm families who raise about 110,000 acres of sugarbeets in California and southern Oregon in the Klamath basin. Our sugarbeets are processed by the Spreckels Sugar Company who operates four factories in the State at Brawley, Mendota, Tracy, which is just south of here and then Woodland which is just to the west.

Our industry has gone through a painful consolidation. We've closed four sugar factories in the past nine years, and today we are a very competitive industry.

We’re a critically important supplier of sugar to a very sophisticated food manufacturing system. We produce over 45 different sugars and syrups to meet the special needs of individual and industrial customers at prices that are 32 percent below the average price of sugar in other developed countries. So we're proud of the fact that we are very, very competitive.

Let me be very clear about one thing, without adequate price safety nets for our farmers and a good and fair trade policy that responds to foreign predatory trade practices, our industry and the essential supplier of our sugar we provide for all consumers in this region and across the country are clearly threatened. A healthy American sweetener industry means a healthy food manufacturing system. It's that simple.

As I said earlier, our growers are the most efficient producers of beet sugar in the world and lower costs than most of the cane sugar produced in the world. Our growers in the Imperial Valley have produced record crops for the last eight years and we are some of the highest producing -- we are the highest producing records in the world.

We've long been supporters of trade agreements that we believe would level the playing field and provide for fair trade. However, the failure of past agreements to address core problems and achieve a more level field has left our growers frustrated and skeptical about future agreements.

Almost 75 percent of all sugar produced in the world is produce in 95 developing countries that are either not members of the WTO, such as Russia and China, and have no obligation, or they are members that have received special and differential treatment that provide for substantially reduced commitments or exemptions and a four-year longer transition period.

We also understand that many of the developing countries are not yet in compliance with their commitments. In our developed country competitors, the EU and Australia are the strongest. The EU has internal price supports 30 percent higher than in the U.S. and uses massive export subsidies, currently at about 25 cents a pound.

Europe's heavily subsidized export of sugar from the ACP region are not even registered with the WTO as an export subsidy. Australia maintains a marketing monopoly and receives subsidies for their industry's infrastructure. The failure of the Uruguay Round to address these problems or enforce the rules has contributed to the current collapse of world sugar prices.

Rather than level the playing field, the Uruguay Round has simply locked in the distortions and lowered the playing field.

CO-MODERATOR LYONS: Ben, just time for one last comment.

MR. GOODWIN: Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see the clock. Let me just mention our recommendations. Market access: other countries must reduce tariffs to the U.S. levels and provide comparable access to their sugar markets before our access commitment is increased and tariffs are reduced.

Export subsidies. The most important issues to address are the elimination of direct and indirect export subsidies and state trading monopolies.

I think the rest of it is in the statement and I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you.