MS. NELSON: Good morning. Apologize that Mr. Sanders couldn't be with us this morning more than you'll ever know. But I do have a statement.

MR. ALLBEE: Just identify yourself for the record.

MS. NELSON: My name is Jenny Nelson I'm a congressional aide for Congressman Sanders. I'm a dairy farmer from the other side of the state. We milk 150 cows.

MR. SCHUMACHER: Which town?

MS. NELSON: Ryegate.

I am pleased the United States Trade Representative and the United States Department of Agriculture chose the State of Vermont as one of the 11 or 12 listening sessions on global trade.

In my view, the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement have been a complete disaster for the average American citizen, especially the family farmer. NAFTA turned a trade surplus with Mexico into a trade deficit very quickly, and doubled the trade deficit we have with Canada. Now the same economists who conducted studies telling us how wonderful NAFTA was going to be are saying; maybe we were wrong. When you pass an agreement that creates huge deficits and job losses instead of job gains, you are wrong.

Family farmers are continuing at the short -- continually at the short end of the stick when it comes to these trade agreements. Between 1996 and 1998, U.S. farm trade balances declined by more than 13 billion dollars. And in March dairy farmers were hit by the single largest reduction in the price of milk in history. This represents a 37 percent drop in the salaries of Vermont dairy farmers.

Prices of other agricultural commodities have fallen even further. For example, U.S. corn prices have dropped by 56 percent from 1996 to 1998, and wheat prices have been reduced by 46 percent over the same period.

Under the Uruguay Round, farm prices have plummeted threatening family farmers worldwide and causing many citizens in developing countries to go hungry. Important food safety measures have already been successfully attacked under the World Trade Organization's sanitary rules and more challenges have been threatened.

Those who say farmers should look to the free market for their price should know full well that the market isn't free in agriculture. Everywhere the farmers look, you have a few large farms, whether it be dairy or whether it be livestock producers, whether it be grain farmers, a few large firms dominate over 50 percent of this market. The deck is stacked against family farmers. And this situation has forced many small farmers to either go bankrupt or to sell their family farm. Between 1994 and 1997, the United States experienced a net loss of about 22,000 farms. In Vermont, 460 dairy farms have been lost since 1990.

In Vermont and in rural communities across our country, the loss of small dairy farms destroys our state character, our rural economy, and the commitment to family and hard work that are deeply routed in the family farm. It is critical that our small dairy farmers survive.

An essential part of ensuring survival of small dairy farmers is the survival of the Northeast Dairy Compact. I am very concerned that the Northeast Dairy Compact could be threatened by the World Trade Organization.

In recent years, WTO has forced changes in the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Dolphin Protection laws and U.S. Turtle Protection laws.

And just last month a large group, a large multi-national company, won a lawsuit against the State of Massachusetts citing the World Trade Organization. Massachusetts was simply trying to boycott companies doing business with Burma, a country with a deplorable record of human rights, for bidding on state contracts.

What would happen if a group of large factory farms banned together and filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization charging that the Northeast Dairy Compact violated the WTO agreement? Let's hope we won't have to find out. And we should not have to find out. Federal laws, state laws and local laws should not be overturned by a World Trade Organization decision.

I have fought against the World Trade Organization for many years because I strongly believe that the people of this country have the right to enact legislation, such as the Northeast Dairy Compact, without the intrusion of a secret, unelected bureaucracy at the World Trade Organization.

At a time when more and more Americans do not vote and feel increasingly alienated from the political process, we must try to make our local, state and federal governments more democratic and more responsive, not less. The people of this country have a right to maintain a level of agricultural subsidies and food safety standards that they feel are appropriate. And these standards should not be subject to challenge through the World Trade Organization by other countries. The people of this country have a right to protect American workers throughout the country without being challenged by some corporations who are out to destroy the family farmer and other American workers on the altar of free trade.

Unfettered global deregulation of trade and investment is not working for the majority of the world. Clearly, the answer to the current failing is not to pursue more of the same through expansion of World Trade Organizations to new areas and deepening of deregulation already in place. Rather, the United States must take the lead at the world trade Ministerial Conference this November in developing policies devoted to raising living standards around the world and promote new citizen health, safety and environmental safeguards through accountable democratic governance.

Will Rogers once said, "When there is no place left to spit, you either have to swallow your tobacco juice or change with the times."

Well, there is no place left to spit. That is why the administration must change with the times. Specifically, the administration must advocate eliminating World Trade Organization provisions that attack democracy, that attack the family farmer, and that attack the standard of living for the overwhelming majority of hard-working Americans in this country. And the perfect opportunity to do this is with World Trade Organization Ministerial Meeting in Seattle in November.

Thank you.