[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 122 (Tuesday, September 27, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1962]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   RESOLUTION INTRODUCTION STATEMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 27, 2005

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce 
legislation designed to help poor farmers in African nations who are 
being undercut and devastated by the continued subsidies some of the 
world's wealthiest countries offer to their own farmers.
  Developed world subsidies drive down global prices for farm products. 
For farmers in wealthy nations, this often involves the amount of 
profit possible; for African farmers, this involves their very 
survival. Since more than 70 percent of Africans depend on the 
agricultural sector for their livelihoods, normalizing global 
agricultural trade is an issue of life or death for many African 
farmers who have few, if any, alternatives to farm Income.
  For every six dollars daily the United States and the nations of the 
European Union spend on agricultural subsidies in their own nations, we 
spend one dollar on official aid to developing countries. This means 
that the positive impact of our aid programs is being undercut by 
trade-distorting subsidies, which are crushing the very people our aid 
is intended to help.
  Developed countries agreed to negotiate a multilateral end to 
agricultural subsidies through the World Trade Organization with a 
target date of January 1st of this year. That deadline was missed, and 
the current Doha round of WTO trade talks may fail, largely because of 
the issue of continuing agricultural subsidies. President Bush recently 
reiterated America's commitment to accelerate the end of all developed 
world agricultural subsidies.
  American cotton subsidies have been said to endanger the welfare of 
African cotton farmers in several African nations, but European dairy 
and meat subsidies pose an even broader threat to African farm incomes. 
When a Japanese cow can produce more daily revenue than even the most 
industrious African farmer, something is seriously wrong with the 
economic order. Curtailing developed world agricultural subsidies will 
allow Africans to be more self-sufficient. It is estimated that such a 
change would result in as much as a 45 percent increase in the net 
agricultural trade by sub-Saharan Africa and a 5.1 percent increase in 
African farm income.
  It is the responsibility of our government, as well as other 
governments, to address the needs of our farmers, but it should not be 
done at the expense of low-income African farmers. This resolution, 
cosponsored by Mr. Payne, Mr. Royce, Mr. Flake and Mr. Meeks, calls for 
a multilateral end to agricultural subsidies as quickly as possible and 
for developed nations to work with African nations to mutually remove 
remaining impediments to equitable agricultural trade in the global 
marketplace.

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