
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 9, 1990                   TAG: 9006090099
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: DES MOINES, IOWA                                LENGTH: Short

BUSH VOWS FOCUS ON FARM PRODUCTS IN TRADE TALKS

President Bush told pork producers Friday that his administration continues to push for including all agricultural products in a new international trade accord, despite stiff resistance from Europe.

Leaders of the swine industry, meantime, announced an alliance with colleagues in Canada and Mexico to attack barriers to sales of their products overseas and "provide ammunition" to U.S. negotiators at the Uruguay Round of talks under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

Farm trade already is big business. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates total U.S. agricultural exports will reach approximately $40 billion in the fiscal year that ends in September.

Expanding export markets for pork, particularly in Japan, has helped fuel a surge in hog prices, which reached record heights last week in the United States.

Pork products accounted for a record $325 million in U.S. farm exports in 1989. But Mike Wehler of Plain, Wis., president of the National Pork Producers Council, said he told Bush that despite a growing export market, "we are a 6 percent to 7 percent net importer of pork."

European markets have been tough to crack because of restrictive standards and subsidized competition, pork producers complain.

Bush said his administration is working to remove those barriers.

"We're determined to press in the Uruguay Round for all agriculture products to be included," Bush told pork producers as a pool of reporters was ushered out of the room at the start of the meeting. - Associated Press

by CNB