Earl Manning, Progressive Farmer

Speaker:

Earl Manning
Progressive Farmer

MR. MANNING: Commissioner Wheeler, I appreciate the two generous introductions. I wish Ruth could have been here to hear that. I hope it's on tape. I would like to take a copy home and play that back to her because she wouldn't believe a word of it. I do welcome you to Memphis. We're not the capital of Tennessee but we are the queen city of agriculture in the lower Mississippi river valley. I often tell people that here in Memphis we don't really know where we fit. If I'm in Mississippi I say I'm from the leading city in north Mississippi or the leading city in eastern Arkansas, if I'm on that side of the river. But here in Tennessee sometimes I think that our state legislature would just as soon we kind of sluffed off the bluff and floated on down the river in the gulf. I say that very facetiously but we do welcome you to Memphis. I would like to introduce some special people who are here. Representing Senator Bill Frisk's office, Jim Humphries. We're glad to have you here. Are there any other Congressmen representatives here? Yes?

MR. ROGER: (INAUDIBLE) from Congressman Barry's office in Arkansas.

MR. MANNING: Very good, from Congressman Barry's office. We appreciate your being here. Thank you. Any other Congressional representatives? From the State Department of agriculture we have Larry Warton (phonetic); from South Carolina Department of Agriculture, Rick Cobb; from North Carolina, Mary Ellen Barker; from the Georgia Department of agriculture, Roger Barlowe; from the Mississippi Department of agriculture. Very good, up in the mountains there. We're glad to have you, too. Did the commissioner ever arrive from South Carolina? There was a possibility that he might be here.

The purpose of this listening session today is so that key people can listen to issues related to world trade, issues that start out in the real world, out where it all starts, out in the farms and the ranches and here in this particular -- this is one of the 12 regional meetings that are being held now. They are being held in advance of the World Trade Organization negotiations that will be held in Seattle in November. So this is very important work that you're doing here today and we appreciate those who have come to present your representative's statements to this distinguished panel of people. They will be -- presenters, I would remind you, you are here to address the panel. This is your audience today. The rest of us are here kind of listening to you, but these people are -- these are the official listeners and we're grateful that they have come to be on our -- in our -- as a part of this session today.

The conduct of the meeting each presenter will have ten minutes to present his or her case and we would ask you to stay on our topic and the topic here is world trade. There are many, many issues in agriculture right now, world trade being a vital one, but we would ask the presenters to please confine your presentations to the business of international trading and how that affects your particular statement of agriculture. We will be announcing you in the order that the list has been given to me and when the presenters finish, the panel may respond or not. It's their call if they want something clarified, but be prepared to respond if you're asked a question or if a panelist needs to feel moved by the spirit to make some response to that. Ordinarily, though, the presenters, your information is important. It's being recorded and it will be conveyed. It will be -- receive new deliberation.

At this point I would like to introduce the panel so that you will know to whom you are addressing these remarks today. At the risk of breaching a long-standing Southern tradition where we present ladies the, we will break that step and we'll get to the distinguished lady from the Department of State, but the of all, we have from the U.S. Trade Representative's office, Bob Cummings. And Bob is from Connecticut. He has experience as an economist both with the Economic Research Service and then later with the Department of Agriculture Service within the USDA. He joined the U.S. Trade Representative's office in 1977 where he is a senior economist in the Office of Agricultural Affairs. So Mr. Cummings, if you have any comments that you would like to make or remarks to address by way of introduction, please do. You may do it from there or what's your pleasure?