Inter-american Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture Release No. 0355.97 Remarks by Deputy Secretary Richard Rominger U.S. Department of Agriculture Inter-american Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (Iica) Santiago, Chile -- October 14, 1997 "AGRICULTURE in the AMERICAS on the EVE OF THE 21ST CENTURY" Director General Aquino, Ministers and Secretaries of Agriculture, distinguished guests, and all those who share with the United States a sense of agriculture's strength and potential in this hemisphere in the 21st century, thank you. My appreciation to Mr. Aquino and the Inter-American Board of Agriculture for using this meeting as a vehicle to that future. We share so much in this hemisphere ... 34 nations whose well-being is linked by increasing integration, free and open markets, environmental concern, scientific debate, and an overriding sense of our own responsibility in the global urgency for food security. We share so much ... that it is only right and fitting that we also share our thoughts and concerns. On behalf of the United States, I repeat the recent words of Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman before the Agriculture Committee of the U.S. Senate: we look to IICA as a "particularly important organization." Not only does IICA have our attention and confidence, it has our endorsement as an organization whose 21st century leadership role is emerging as we identify the top challenges facing agriculture in the Americas. Thanks largely to the leadership of Director General Aquino, IICA has become more streamlined, a more efficient organization uniquely situated to guide us in technical matters and coordinate our multi-national interests. I say this with no little pride. As a farmer from the agricultural state of California, I'm honored to stand here today in the footsteps of another American farmer ... a man who became a U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, a U.S. Vice President, and a founder of IICA. More than 50 years ago, in 1943, Vice President Henry Wallace made a lengthy tour of western South American countries. He spoke here in the beautiful country of Chile, here in Santiago, before a crowd of eighty thousand people. In Costa Rica, he inspected plantings of cinchona seeds and disease-resistant rubber trees. And he dedicated an Institute of Tropical Agriculture with words that are still startling, a message that speaks across borders and across centuries. "In order to attain freedom from want," Wallace said, "the theory of sustained yield and of the free interchange of products between nations must be accepted and followed. Strength and happiness have a common denominator in adequate diets." FOOD SECURITY AND TRADE POLICY I don't think I've ever heard 'food security' defined so well. True food security means a serious, shared commitment to worldwide sustainable development. This is potentially one of the greatest collaborations among nations ever ... the idea that we can build a future together that will help us work for peace, preserve the environment, fight disease, face up to world hunger, and grow our economies. It's the U.S. conviction that liberalized trade, biotechnology, and sustainable agriculture must go hand-in-hand with these goals and will prove critical to achieving world food security. We're already crediting more liberalized trade and U.S. agricultural trade policy with our solid agricultural economy. U.S. policy-makers gave the agricultural community the opportunity to compete and win in world markets through the 1996 Farm Bill. But it was our farmers and ranchers, through innovation, technology, research, and export promotion, who turned it into solid export success. The Farm Bill pulled out what we call the "safety net" of market stabilization, but it gave something else -- something targeted to the 21st century global economy. It gave a tougher, more durable kind of safety net in its emphasis on competitiveness in the world market as the path to the continued profitability of U.S. agriculture -- its very future. Exports are the new safety net for U.S. agriculture. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture will enhance export opportunities for our producers through export strategies -- like the Uruguay Round -- and by leveling the playing field for American agriculture in this hemisphere and in the world. The most current and compelling illustration is the Administration's close work with the 105th Congress for fast-track negotiating authority to streamline passage of trade agreements. President Clinton, who's visiting Argentina and Brazil this week, has made fast-track a high priority. He needs fast-track procedures to negotiate in the World Trade Organization and speed negotiations on a Free Trade Area of the Americas. Let me express U.S. appreciation to Brazil as the recent chair of the FTAA process and host of the third Trade Ministerial. We're looking forward to the next Trade Ministerial in Costa Rica and the start of FTAA negotiations at the Summit of the Americas in Santiago in April. A Free Trade Area of the Americas is important to every nation in the region. The western hemisphere is the second-fastest growing market in the world. For the United States, Latin America is our fastest growing trading partner. But we feel that we're on the fringe of the region's steady march toward integration. There are some 30 bilateral and regional trade agreements in the western hemisphere. To the extent that regional arrangements increase trade liberalization and economic reform, they are consistent with President Clinton's push for a Free Trade Area of the Americas. President Clinton has been clear, in discussions around the world, that the United States will be very aggressive in protecting our rights and enforcing the commitments made by our trading partners. As tariffs and other traditional trade barriers come down, many countries are under pressure to come up with more creative and covert ways to protect their markets. The result is one of our biggest trade stumbling blocks, and perhaps the greatest threat to freer trade : phony science. Unfounded sanitary and phytosanitary objections must not be permitted to throw off the delicate balance of fairness. Global trade restricted by pseudoscience barriers has an estimated price tag as high as $5 billion each year. The ultimate judgment call in trade disputes must be on the side of sound science. To emphasize the importance we attach to this, the U.S. is taking a lead role in the WTO Committee on Sanitary-Phytosanitary issues. FOOD SAFETY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY We're also moving swiftly to do what we feel must be done to address food safety problems in our country that are linked to both domestic and foreign produce. The American people are a complex lot. They want less government. But they recognize the challenges in the international web of the modern world, and look to the government to protect them in ways that they cannot protect themselves. Our people want a wide variety of fruits and vegetables year-round. U.S. imports of foreign produce have increased sharply over the past decade. Because incidents of food-borne illness are also up, we're asking for legislation giving the Food and Drug Administration the authority to stop produce imports from countries whose standards don't equal ours. Food safety issues offer a great opportunity for cooperation between the U.S. and IICA. IICA and one of our universities -- Texas A&M -- already have cooperative work underway, including a training center for pest management. If an internationally safe and plentiful food supply is a top goal for a food-secure world, then cutting-edge research and technology are critical to getting us there. We must look to technology for serious answers to tough questions: How do we feed a growing world while protecting our land? And how do we produce more food from existing farmland? Over the next 25 years or so, global population will increase by more than two billion people. That's the equivalent of two more India's or three additional sub-Saharan Africa's. Without biotechnology, we will be forced to exploit highly erodible farm and forest land. The alternative and the hope are in the laboratories and research centers of our dedicated scientists around the world -- places like the International Center for the Improvement of Corn and Wheat in Mexico. Science is on our side. Biotechnology holds out the promise of food security by improving disease and pest resistance, increasing tolerance to environmental stress, raising crop yields, and preserving plant and animal diversity. I want to acknowledge Brazil's recent authorization of imports of U.S. gene-modified soybeans for industrial processing. It's this type of progressive action that moves us constantly closer to a food-secure future. It's been said that, "Responsible biotechnology is not the enemy; starvation is." Responsible science is not an end in itself. Director General Aquino has noted -- and I thank him for this -- that biotechnology is a 21st century tool. It's a tool that offers enormous potential -- to go beyond traditional plant breeding and, in the process, to meet our commitments to world hunger and to the preservation of our fragile environment. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT At the Earth Summit at the United Nations in June, President Mugabe of Zimbabwe described our shared environment as a "global commons." The fact is that none of us can know true food security without a serious commitment to preserving our resources through worldwide sustainable development. In the United States, this concept has driven historic reforms of our conservation policies. As we're putting our most productive farmland to use, we're protecting our most highly erodible land. If we think from a perspective beyond our own years, then sustainable development should rank among the highest global priorities -- whether it's preserving farmland, forests, or fisheries, reducing population pressures on our resources, or addressing changes in global climate. President Cinton considers global climate change a "real and imminent" concern, especially significant to sustainable agriculture. A White House Task Force has been set up to study the issue. Initial work shows some change in climatic patterns is likely and the greatest need to adjust will fall on the agriculture and forestry sectors. Our Ministries need to begin a dialogue on appropriate ways that we can monitor changes in the hemisphere and help farmers adapt to future changes in climate. These are not North American farmers or South American farmers. They are the farmers of the western hemisphere who have, as their honor and burden, the work of safely, responsibly contributing to the food security of the 21st century. It falls to us, as their government officials, to respect their work through fair and open trade. And it falls to us to recognize that we are bound together in this effort, in our concern for the environment and our fragile resources, and in the strength and prosperity of the hemisphere we'll leave to our children. IICA has indicated in many ways that it is poised to assume leadership in these many and complex aspects of agriculture. It is already a catalyst for private sector involvement, for training, education, technology, and knowledge. The United States sees a clear 21st century role for IICA and looks forward to a strong, productive partnership. Thank you. # NOTE: USDA news releases and media advisories are available on the Internet. Access the USDA Home Page on the World Wide Web at http://www.usda.gov