MR. REIFF: My name is David Reiff. I'm president of Reiff Grain and Feed from Fairfield that's a service country elevator in the southeast part of the state. Again, my comments are on behalf of the Agribusiness Association of Iowa. There's myself, and at least a thousand other commercial ag business firms. We're largely the feed grain fertilizer people that directly support production agriculture.

The upcoming world trade talks round certainly has great importance to my business and agriculture, in general. We believe we must use this forum to address the following four points:

The sanitary and phytosanitary issue of -- has been a road block with several countries. The current WTO provisions clearly define those measures which a nation may take to protect human, animal, or plant health as long as those measures are based on sound science. We urge the administration to resist any attempt to weaken current sanitary and phytosanitary provisions by nonscientific health or safety claims to be raised.

We also believe in science-based and transparent approval process for all the new technologies. Some nations are utilizing regulatory approval process to impede the introduction of new biotech events. The need for uniform science-based and transparent regulatory review process should be addressed in the next WTO round. Consumer rejection of new technologies, in our view, is a normal marketplace risk, but the inability to bring a new product to the consumer markets for such a decision is a trade barrier.

We'd also like to see a reduction in the trade-distorting domestic supports. Under the '96 Farm Bill, the United States is moving to a decoupling of domestic farm supports. Unfortunately, other states and other countries are not. We believe providing income and technical support to producers will always be a part of the domestic policy of many nations. We should encourage such support to be structured in a way that it is decoupled from trade-distorting policies that do not allow the world price discovery system to function.

Finally, it's the quick, effective dispute settlement. The current WTO provisions regarding dispute settlements remind one of securing a civil judgment against a debtor; enforcement is the key. The current language allows for adjudication by a dispute settlement panel, but little effective enforcement means except to file complaint after complaint. The rules should be fair and equitable, clear and binding, and certainly enforceable in a timely and predictable manner. We urge the administration to make quick and effective dispute settlement in the next round of the world trade talks.

We additionally want to take this opportunity to encourage the administration to concentrate on two additional areas of international trade: First is, I mentioned before the reforming of the European Union's Common Agricultural Police which accounts for $60 billion in trade-distorting subsidies, and maybe 85 percent of the world's export subsidies. And secondly, as has been said also, the admission of China to the WTO.

Finally, we echo the many voices today petitioning the administration to strongly support renewal of the President's fast-track trade negotiating authority. We in agriculture believe the administration has been motivated perhaps more by internal politics than the reality of necessity of renewing this fast-track authority. The administration can go a long way to dispelling that belief, give agriculture a big shot in the arm by supporting the fast-track provisions embodied in the comprehensive trade bill now being drafted by the Senate Finance Committee. And, Secretary Glickman, much has been said today about the U.S. overproduction under the Freedom to Farm Act; however, the mechanism alive today of allowing prices to seek world market clearing levels has perhaps stopped the clearing of land in the southern hemisphere for the first time in about 12 years. This should finally curb the biggest expansion on the globe which was our fastest growing competition in agriculture.

Our sincere thanks to the listening panel for the opportunity to comment this afternoon.