[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 41 (Thursday, April 2, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E557]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              SELECTIVE AGRICULTURAL EMBARGOES ACT OF 1998

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                          HON. THOMAS W. EWING

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 1, 1998

  Mr. EWING. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support 
the Selective Agricultural Embargoes Act of 1998, which my good friend 
Representative Condit and myself introduced today. This bill would 
require the approval of the House and the Senate if the President 
decided to impose an agriculture-specific embargo on a foreign country. 
This legislation would not interrupt embargoes currently in place, nor 
would it impede the President's authority to impose cross-sector 
embargoes.
  The Soviet Grain Embargo is still very fresh in the minds of grain 
farmers throughout America. In the midst of an already poor overall 
economy the imposition of the Soviet Grain Embargo triggered the worst 
agriculture economy in America since the Great Depression. With the 
enactment of the Freedom to Farm Act, our farmers are depending more 
and more on foreign markets for an increasingly significant portion of 
their income. Our farmers are marketing themselves as reliable 
suppliers of food and fiber to the world markets. Agriculture has a 
unique position in the U.S. export portfolio. While the overall trade 
balance has been in deficit since 1970, U.S. agriculture exports have 
consistently been in surplus. Our farmers are so productive and so 
efficient that the American market cannot possibly consume all that is 
produced. Because our farmers depend on foreign markets more than any 
other sector of our economy, they have the most to lose should an 
agriculture embargo be imposed. Congress should have input into any 
process that threatens the incomes of our farmers. This bill would 
allow the Congress and the American people a chance to fully debate the 
merits of any future agriculture-specific embargo. We owe it to our 
farmers to make sure that they do not bear a disproportionate share of 
the burden for U.S. foreign policy decisions. Mr. Speaker, I urge my 
colleagues to cosponsor the Selective Agricultural Embargoes Act of 
1998.

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