First of all, Secretary and panel, I thank you for listening to me this morning, and I appreciate this opportunity to appear here today as a Kansas farmer and as a Kansas legislator. And so I will be speaking basically, though, as a Kansas farmer. I am a partner in Pork Chop Acres, Incorporated.

It's a family corporation with my husband, son, and grandsons. Our business produces and markets 12,000 pigs a year. In addition we own and operate approximately 3,000 acres of corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, and wheat in Washington County, Kansas. I'm presently completing my fourth year in the Kansas legislature. I serve on the House Ag and House Environment and House Appropriations committees in the state of Kansas.

As producers, we are currently experiencing some of the most challenging times with record low commodity prices, which you've heard about and many of you are experiencing as well. The fact is that American farmers' production does far exceed the domestic use while the global food demand continues to increase. The future success of our family business as well as all agricultural business hinges on the ability of the U.S. to take the lead in the upcoming round of WTO negotiations.

Due to the abundant supply of grain sorghum for livestock, mild climate, and close proximity to Mexico and Central America, the state of Kansas is emerging as a growth area for the pork industry. In fact, I was visiting with Kansas state economist this last week, Gary Finchbau. He suggested that Mexico will become our number one export country for the United States within the next ten years.

Current plans are in place today to build a new pork packing plant in Kansas, so you can tell what's happening with the state. Even given the fact that pork producers have experienced very low prices, in fact probably the lowest in 50 years, $211 million was generated from the hog industry and from hog exports from Kansas in 1998. These declining prices directly reflect unfair subsidies and restricted access to many competing markets.

For U.S. pork producers such as our family to prosper, further liberalization is imperative. While the U.S. pork industry has seen pork exports increase 86 percent in volume since Uruguay, the last round of agreement in 1994, we are still at a disadvantage as a result of unfair subsidies and market access. We must eliminate all exports subsidies. Export subsidies transfer market share away from us and give the European Union and less efficient pork producers an advantage.

We need to set all tariff levels at zero. While U.S. agriculture tariffs average 5 percent, other nations impose tariffs as high as 50 percent. It's impossible to compete in international markets at this type of disadvantage.

Commodities need to be negotiated on an individual basis. When measuring reduction commitments, each commodity needs to be negotiated on its own terms in the next trade round. Furthermore, we need access to all markets. It is unfair to the United States' producer to not have access, and this has been pointed out before that while EU pork is exported to the United States, the EU country markets have been closed for the past ten years to pork producers.

Kansas has already benefitted for a number of agricultural agreements. There's still much to be done. As a pork producer, I understand the importance of exports to the pork industry. As a Kansas legislator, I recognize the increasing importance of exports to Kansas agriculture and statewide economy. Since 1991 the state's reliance on agricultural exports has risen from 26 to 29 percent. If Kansas farmers and ranchers and food processors are to compete successfully for export opportunities in the 21st Century, they need fair trade and fair access to global growing markets. We can compete with EU farmers, but we cannot compete with the EU government and other governments.

When barriers are reduced, there will be losers and there will be winners. It will be necessary to compensate the losers. In the end, I truly believe that free trade will mean a higher standard of living for everyone. I wanted to thank you for this opportunity to speak.