[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 26 (Friday, February 12, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S1639]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  FOOD AND MEDICINE FOR THE WORLD ACT

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my distinguished 
colleagues, Senators Ashcroft, Baucus, and Kerrey, in authoring the 
Food and Medicine for the World Act of 1999, which would limit the 
ability of the U.S. government to unilaterally cut off our exports of 
food and medicine to foreign countries.
  The current stressed state of the farm economy is simply highlighting 
a problem that has existed in U.S. foreign policy for years. That is, 
our law allows for the application of unilateral sanctions on the 
export of food, despite extensive evidence that this policy is not only 
ineffective in achieving U.S. foreign policy goals but also is harmful 
to American economic interests. This is especially the case for 
agricultural commodities, which are readily available from other 
suppliers around the world and which are a critical component of the 
U.S. export portfolio. Moreover, limiting access to food and medical 
products is likely to have the most devastating effect on not the 
governments that the U.S. seeks to punish, but rather the poorest 
citizens of the foreign country. Thus it makes sense for the U.S. to 
engage with the citizens of that country by supplying--either through 
aid programs or through trade--basic life-sustaining products.
  This bill takes a moderate approach and prohibits sanctioning of food 
and medical products only. It also provides a safeguard by allowing the 
prohibition to be waived if the President submits a report to Congress 
asking that the sanction include agriculture and medicine and Congress 
approves, through an expedited process, his request to sanction. 
Therefore, there is a mechanism to prohibit aid or trade from occurring 
with a rogue foreign regime when there is broad national consensus that 
it is the right thing to do. I believe that this is a reasonable 
balance between our need so stop using ineffective agricultural 
sanctions and our need to continue protecting U.S. foreign policy 
interests.
  It is high time we stop shooting ourselves in the foot by cutting off 
agricultural exports, which are a real building block of the U.S. 
economy. I am encouraged that many members of the Senate have focused 
their attention on this problem and I look forward to working with my 
colleagues on a bipartisan basis to enact needed reforms.

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