Dr. Kramer.

DR. KRAMER: I'm Thomas Kramer, Director of Intellectual Property Protection, Regulatory Affairs of Seminis Vegetable Seeds. Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to appear today to present our company's views on preparation for the upcoming multilateral trade negotiations in the World Trade Organization.

Seminis is the world's largest vegetable seed producer accounting for over 25 percent of the international market for vegetable seeds of all species. There are 70 breeding and testing stations around the world. Seminis markets its products in 110 countries.

I'm also testifying today on behalf of Bionova, a life science and agricultural production holding company engaged in applying genetic engineering to improve agronomic and consumer quality traits of fruits and vegetables. An important member of the Bionova family, DNA Plant Technology Corporation is based in Oakland, California and is a leading biotechnology company focused on using its proprietary genetic engineering and plant sciences technologies to develop and improve the quality and agronomic traits of fruits and vegetables.

Several years ago, our company made a conscious key decision to seek a global leadership position with respect to agricultural biotechnology, particularly as it applies to fruits and vegetables. The commercial potential of biotechnology clearly was an important factor in this decision. But our decision was also very much influenced by a firm conviction that agriculture biotechnology has the potential to produce enormous benefits for farmers and consumers in industrial and developing countries alike.

Our company's Chairman often points out that seeds are software. Through the activities of Seminis and DNA Plant Technology, we are building software that will allow farmers to grow high-value produce, contribute to environmentally friendly farming and help address the nutritional challenges of an expanding global population.

We've been gratified that so many U.S. senior government officials have stressed the importance of developing clear and transparent rules which will allow agricultural biotechnology to achieve its full potential. And we are grateful for this emphasis in U.S. trade policy.

Indeed, we have numerous examples to persuade us that the current lack of an international consensus on trade and genetically modified products needs to be addressed on an urgent basis.

Deep divisions on these questions were apparent in Cartagena this last February in the context of negotiations for an international biosafety protocol. We are deeply concerned about the European Union's cumbersome procedures for approving the commercialization of genetically modified agricultural products and by the moves of some EU countries to require restrictive and potentially misleading labeling. And we are seeing indications that Japan, Korea, Mexico, Australia and many other countries may be developing regulatory structures, which could hinder trade and the products of agricultural biotechnology.

In the light of these developments, we believe strongly that the upcoming round of negotiations in the World Trade Organization presents a unique opportunity, one that must not be missed, to foster the development of a binding framework of rules, which will achieve the proper balance between legitimate regulatory oversight on one hand and the need for transparent and open trade rules on the other.

Ultimately, the upcoming WTO negotiations need to achieve a consensus that the principles of science and scientific review must be the sole basis for regulating market approval and cost prohibitive trade in the products of modern agricultural biotechnologies.

In our view, the WTO is uniquely positioned to develop the rules which ensure that genetically modified agriculture and food products are not subject to discriminatory treatment by virtue of the means by which they are produced.

Turning to another aspect of the WTO negotiations, I want to stress our company's keen interest in intellectual property protection guide elements in the new trade round. The TRIPS agreement was a major accomplishment of the Uruguay Round, but the rapid base of technological change imposes a need to ensure that this global framework remains as comprehensive as possible.

The ability of companies, like Seminis and DNA Plant Technology to develop innovative and beneficial new products depend enormously on the degree to which those innovations will be subject to vigorous legal protection.

Before closing, it's important to mention that we recognize that the high degree of emotion surrounding agricultural biotechnology issues, particularly in the EU, but also in many developing countries, increases the challenge of forming a WTO consensus in favor of transparent, science-based regulations, which will foster open trade in these products. In that regard, our company, and others in our industry as well, recognize that we have an important role to play in persuading the public of the environmental, nutritional and economic benefits of agricultural biotechnology.

It is critically important for these industry led efforts to complement the activities of the U.S. trade negotiators particularly in the context of the upcoming WTO talks.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you, again, for the opportunity to appear today. Seminis Vegetable Seeds and DNA Plant Technology would like to emphasize that we are available to work with you and your colleagues as you begin to develop more detailed policy positions in each of these complex areas, both prior to the launch of the new trade round in Seattle and during the negotiating process that will follow.

Please feel free to call on us any time.