SECRETARY GLICKMAN: Well, first of all, let me thank you, Secretary Judge and you, Mike, for your leadership and help. I would just like to say to Craig, so that you know, I do -- I've indicated my support for a national LDP rate. Not everybody in the country, however, supports that. So we agreed that we would go to the public comment. Hopefully it will be short and then we will be able to make some decisions fairly quickly. But inasmuch as going from a county system to a national rate will end up costing upwards of $500 million and maybe more, it was determined that I needed to get the issue out there and have it discussed in some sort of a public process. But I do think that it is not equitable to see these vast differences in the loan rates in the county price just across state lines, just across county lines. I've indicated that I think it ought to be changed. So we'll try to move that as quickly as possible. Unfortunately there are other parts of the country that we think are going to be hurt by this type of process. In fact, I think that we can design it so that that won't happen, but it is a bit complicated. And given what's happened to prices and especially what -- unfortunately today again we have another crop report, and it's not good news. It's more production. It's going to mean that the LDP is even going to be a more critical part of the safety net over the short term than anybody ever dreamed of since the 1996 Farm Bill passed. The LDP inequities will be even greater because of the utilization of it. Thank God we have the LDP right now. But we need to make sure that it is fair, and we will continue to. Tom Grau who is here is working on this one, and we'll try to get something done, as quickly as possible.

I want Ambassador Scher to also say something before we leave because we both have to go back to the same particular meeting tomorrow, but these meetings are very important to us to figure out what is the right balance between an effective trade policy which protects our rights but at the same time recognizing that these trade issues are not abstract inhuminations. People's lives are at stake here. So we have to do what's right and what's fair, and it has to be accountable with domestic farm policy. You can't throw it out the window at the same time you work on trade issues. I think it was H.L. Menkin who once said that for every complicated problem, there is a simple and a wrong solution. And when it comes to a lot of these issues we're talking about today, there is no real, simple solution to it. Unfortunately I wish everybody in every other part of the world saw the world as we see it, and it would be very easy. But everybody has to protect their own economic interest and what we have to make sure is that people play by rules which are fair and transparent so everybody knows what the rules are and that we try to minimize trade distortion between countries. We'll probably never eliminate it, but as I said before, the trade part is only one part of the safety net. There are other parts of the safety net, and a lot of them are not just farming. There's the farm bill part and I've said I think we need to modify the Freedom to Farm Act. It definitely needs some modifications based on what's happened. We also need to look at our tax laws because in many respects, producers may need some benefits through health insurance or state taxes or those kinds of things as well that don't all relate to farming policy. But this is a very useful opportunity for me to get out to Iowa and we're probably the only politicians that are here that aren't running for president. They couldn't draft me for that in a million years.

But in any event, this is very important for us to be out here. And these meetings will have an impact. I want you to know that. Imagine going into the trade negotiations with the farm economy in worse shape than it's been for a long time. It's going to have a dramatic impact on what trade talks are done and what we ultimately come out with. And the final thing I would have to tell you is that we're very fortunate. The USTR which negotiates the trade agreements with our help, of course, now has an ambassador for agriculture. We've never had one before. This gentleman right here Peter Scher who is Senate-confirmed, Presidentially- appointed. And so it used to be that the USTR would negotiate generally, but you never had anybody that was there to really focus on agriculture and farm issue. Now you've got somebody who has experience in it who wants to do the right thing and can kind of balance the interest of agriculture with the other interests that he has to deal with. I think that's going to be very, very important in the next rounds.

So I'm just delighted that I've had a chance to be here. I appreciate everybody's hospitality. And I'll do my best so the next time I come back, things are going to be a hell of a lot better than they are right now. Thank you all very much.