Mr. IOANES. No. I can only tell you that our January 1963 exports will probably be under January of 1962 somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 million. It would be a mistake to say that all of this is loss, not all of it will be loss. But certainly the poultry we didn't ship in January won't get sold, and some of the feed grains we didn't ship in January won't get sold. We will pick up some of it in later months. But some significant part of that $200 million was lost. Mr. MICHEL. Where would that market have gone, to which one, or to a variety of our competitors? Mr. IOANES. Yes, all around the world. Mr. IOANES. I don't think Mr. MICHEL. You don't think it is lost forever? Mr. MICHEL. You attribute it solely to the strike? PREPARATION FOR TARIFF NEGOTIATIONS Mr. MICHEL. The Department of Agriculture, you say, must devote a great deal of time and effort to the task of analyzing the trade situation for literally hundreds of items. Mr. IONES. Yes. Mr. MICHEL. Which will figure in the forthcoming sixth round of negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Mr. IOANES. Yes. Mr. MICHEL. Now, will the Department of Commerce be figuring in these? Mr. IOANES. Yes, sir. Mr. MICHEL. And are you working closely with them? Mr. IOANES. Yes, sir. The two primary departments concerned with the economic studies of tariff negotiations are the two Departments you have mentioned. Commerce is now making similar studies for industrial products. And where we say we have literally hundreds of items, I am sure they would say they have literally thousands. Specialists in both Departments are already conducting preliminary studies of the effects of tariff cuts on both sides of the water on both our exports and our imports. This process will be going on steadily for the next 2 years. It is a subject that you gentlemen and the Congress will be hearing about as items start to get listed, your people are going to be coming to you as well as us saying that "This is good," or "It is not good." I would also like to add that many other agencies of Government are going to have to help us in this process, because it is such a big manpower job to do these analyses for hundreds of items and make sure you know what you have got, that we are going to have to call other agencies of our Government to help get the job done. I don't think it will appear in their budget as it will in ours, because it is our primary job. But we are going to have to take everything we export and everything we import and see what kind of bargain we come out with, if tariffs are cut this amount or that amount. INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIRS AND PROMOTION Mr. MICHEL. On this large trade exhibit in Western Europe this fall, is that your primary responsibility, or does Commerce have that? Mr. IOANES. It is entirely our responsibility, and Commerce of course puts on its own fairs with respect to industrial produets. Mr. MICHEL. But this is strictly going to be an agricultural fair? Mr. IOANES. It is our fair. And we will be working very closely with a couple of other agencies of the Government, and will be seeking the advice of the Commerce Department. But this will not be an ordinary trade fair; this will be a fair in which we are going to try to promote the cause of a liberal trade policy. This means that other agenices, such as USIA, which have a role in this, will be brought into the act with us. We are going to have to see that agricultural leaders from this country, trade leaders from this country and trade groups who can talk about the benefits of reasonably priced food are present at the fair and use the fair as a takeoff point to help us with our longtime access problem. Mr. MICHEL. Will this involve more than raw agricultural products! Mr. IOANES. Yes. Mr. MICHEL. Processed? Mr. IOANES. Yes. Mr. MICHEL. I am glad to hear you say that. ADDITIONAL STAFFING AT FOREIGN POSTS What are we talking about when we are talking about junior assistants? Mr. IOANES. We are talking there of men in age from about 26 up to 40, even, who are in grade ranges 11 and 12. They are agricultural college graduates, who are like the people you have met in Italy and in Paris and in possibly 12 or 13 places around the globe. These are outstanding college people, many of whom have trained with us in the summertime, so that they have learned what we do, and have spent 2 or 3 or 4 years here in Washington, and some even longer, and then have gone out to learn the ropes in the field under an experienced attaché. Someday they will become an attaché. Mr. MINOR. One has just been transferred to Monrovia, Liberia, as an attaché, Neil Witting. Mr. MICHEL. How much of a volume of business do we do in Liberia? Mr. MINOR. But he has this whole territory of several countries. Mr. MICHEL. Did I understand you to say that one of those new three attachés would be in Dakar? Mr. IOANES. Yes. Mr. MICHEL. Why not further up north? Mr. IOANES. Do you have a map here? Mr. MICHEL. The map shows the deficiency to really be in north Africa. Mr. IOANES. That is the northern area. We are talking about the division of this area here [indicating on map]. We feel we are the weakest in this area, which is what you are talking about. Mr. MICHEL. Does Algeria still have the commitment to ship such a big volume of its citrus to France? Mr. IOANES. Yes. Actually one of the things we worry about and haven't a way to solve yet is the fact that under the Treaty of Association, if and when it is signed, between the Common Market and the African states, this Treaty of Association will give at least duty-free entry for existing trade in agricultural products to the African areas. And so that those who produce any of the crops we produce will automatically have an advantage over us. And that is why, where we have duty-free articles, soybeans and cotton, the association won't hurt us, and that is why we want to get the duties down, like on tobacco, because the lower the duties are to third countries, the less the amount of preference for those inside. IMPORTED COMMODITIES Mr. MICHEL. On February 27 our colleague, Mr. Langen of Minnesota, called our attention to a problem of importing certain commodities which are in surplus. As an example, dairy products which are not included under import quotas are being imported in increasing amounts. And in the winter a rash of cream imports from New Zealand to east and west seaports reached a reported 2 million pounds in shipments. And these shipments are said to be undercutting prices, and hurting the domestic product. Another example is in the importation of meat. Our fiscal 1962 exports to Australia, according to my figure, in farm commodities totaled $35 million, while our imports exceeded $168 million, largely beef, veal, and mutton. One of my Illinois constituents tells me that he asked the local grocer if he bought any Australian meat and discovered that he had purchased some, boned, frozen, and packaged in a paper carton. This beef had a nice red color, it was sort of stringy looking without marbeling, and he was able to grind that beef with the excess fat from domestic meat and sell it for hamburger. Meanwhile beef prices on live animals here have taken a decisive drop since January. These circumstances seem to support the view that the State Department makes these decisions without adequate consideration of our own farm problem, or what is the complete import-export balance picture insofar as farm commodities, and what factors enter into these decisions. I think this part has been covered. Mr. IOANES. I will repeat it in capsule form. We exported $312 billion for dollars in 1961-62, and in that year we imported about $3.7 billion of agricultural products, of which half is of things we don't grow in the United States, and half of things we do grow, like the items you mentioned. So the balance sheets of commercial exports of 312, commercial imports of things like those of about 1.8 or 1.9. So it is a two-for-one ratio. With respect to the particular items that you mentioned, it is true that in recent months there have been imports of three types of dairy products which have been causing concern certain kinds of cheese, frozen cream, and a product called Exylone, which is a 44-percent butterfat item. It is a matter that is being discussed within the Government at the present time. Mr. MICHEL. What kind of economic pressure can you bring to bear in the interest of the American farmer? Mr. IOANES. The pressure that is being brought to bear on the Government, I will use that term, is the use of the section 22 authority under which the Secretary and the President can act to have the Tariff Commission conduct an investigation to determine whether these imports are seriously interfering with the price-support program. Mr. MICHEL. Is this being done? Mr. RENNE. It is required by law, Mr. Congressman, of the Secretary too, whenever he feels that it is reaching proportions that are damaging U.S. agriculture. Mr. MICHEL. Has he got to that feeling yet? My point is, you have on the record, have you not, what is being done? Mr. IOANES. I am sorry, Mr. Michel. I will repeat, this is a matter that is causing the Department concern, and that is under active study. Mr. MICHEL. As I understand it, then, in this matter of imports of dairy products from "Down Under" there is concern in the Department of Agriculture for the volume that has been coming into this country. Mr. IOANES. Yes, sir. Mr. MICHEL. And that appropriate steps under the law have been initiated and taken by the Department to bring this to the attention of the President? Mr. IOANES. My answer is the same, that the Department of Agriculture Mr. MICHEL. Has the Department of Agriculture done everything it can do? Mr. IOANES. Yes, sir. Mr. MICHEL. And since there hasn't actually been anything substantially reflected by way of improving the picture, it would seem to me that the President himself would have to take some kind of positive action. Mr. RENNE. You can answer that now, Mr. Ioanes. Mr. WHITTEN. I think the members of the committee are entitled to any information within the knowledge of the witness, except, perhaps, that those things that a Member of Congress would not want to needlessly embarrass the witness about, or those things at a high level, or those things that we know are in confidence. I don't know how far we have to go there. I think Mr. Michel is entitled to have full knowledge on the matter. And if it is a directive or something that might create a change in the market, I think we in the committee have to be very careful that we don't release something that drives the market up or down, or anything like that. tainly a member of the committee is entitled to something he asks for in the realm of what you know. Mr. MICHEL. I am sure that you can appreciate that when a farmer comes up to me and says: "Look, I know this is still happening, and in the meantime I got seven bucks less a hundred for the cattle I was shipping into Chicago than I thought I was going to get because of a drop in prices, and some of it has to be reflected because of the imports so what are you fellows doing down there"? I am sure you can ap preciate that I can't say: "Well, I am sitting tight here waiting for the administration to move, I am bringing pressure to bear in our subcommittee this afternoon, I have asked the witness to give me a little bit of an answer, and I got the runaround." SOYBEAN MARKET Leaders of the soybean industry say the No. 1 problem is maintaining and expanding our soybean market abroad. One of the professors of agricultural marketing at the University of Illinois tells us that the soybean industry is in serious surplus trouble, and has been since. governmental Public Law 480 shipments were initiated in 1954. I am not so sure that I would subscribe to those views that have been expressed. What would your comment be? Mr. IOANES. I would hope that you would not subscribe to those views. It is true that the production of soybeans in the United States has expanded tremendously since 1954. In part, that production response reflected a growing demand for meal in this country. Meal prices, as I understand it, are not cheap at the present time. Practically every pound of meal produced from those beans is consumed in the United States. And one of the strong factors in this production response in your State, in Iowa, and all the Midwest and in the South, too, has been the demand for the product. It is true that there is less need commercially in the United States for the oil than for the meal. And this is the basis for a lot of our shipments under Public Law 480, the fact that the oil can be used abroad in the food-for-peace program, but not the meal. And so we are moving fairly large quantities of oil. In the process the exports of soybean and cottonseed oil, commercially, are much larger today than when the program started in 1954. The process has resulted in bigger exports commercially as well as bigger total exports. Mr. MICHEL. Since a number of African countries are oil exporters, is that our biggest competitor? Mr. IOANES. Oilseeds and peanuts are competitive products. I wish the situation, looking down the road, looked as good for all commodities as it does for soybeans. A lot of people who study this question closely can see the United States growing a million bushel crop one of these days. And I really don't see the problems ahead in our world market for oilseed, including cottonseed, the same way as I see for some of our other commodities. It is a growth item. DISCOUNT SALES OF RICE Mr. MICHEL. You spoke of a subsidy on rice for sales made to Canada. Mr. LEROUX. Yes. Mr. MICHEL. How much of a subsidy is that? Mr. LEROUX. The subsidy would average around $2.70. This is about the overall average subsidy. That is for export outside of the United States. It averages about $2.70 on a year-round basis. Mr. MICHEL, $2.70 what? Mr. LEROUX. A hundred pounds. |