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"Bringing down barriers to trade promotes growth and prosperity, for the United States and for the world," said U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick. "American workers, businesses and farmers expect a level playing field abroad. The Bush administration is committed to identifying unfair barriers to U.S. exports and to working aggressively with our trading partners to eliminate those barriers. "

The Office of the United States Trade Representative, in cooperation with other U.S. government agencies and the U.S. agricultural community, has been working to remove nontariff barriers (NTBs) and maximize opportunities for exports. Last July, for example, the first California grapes arrived in Australia after a decades long ban. And in November, through negotiations with the European Commission, USTR averted a situation that could have restricted more than $400 million worth of grain exports to Europe.

According to the 2003 National Trade Estimate Report:

"U.S. agricultural producers are among the most competitive in the world, and the United States has been a net exporter of agricultural products since the late 1950s. Yet U.S. agricultural exports would be even greater without the NTBs that are used against them. Since the EU imposed a moratorium on imports of agricultural biotech products in 1998, for example, U.S. corn exports to the EU have declined by 55 percent. U.S. poultry exports to Russia have decreased by almost 45 percent since import restrictions on U.S. poultry have gone into effect. Russia is the top U.S. export market for poultry, and the import restrictions helped contribute to a $500 million decline in U.S. poultry exports to the world last year."

AFBF President Bob Stallman testified before a House hearing in late March, reiterating that trade barriers against agricultural biotechnology are artificial and unfounded.

"AFBF has yet to discover any peer-reviewed scientific risk assessment that concludes that products of agricultural biotechnology intended for food use are inherently less safe to humans, animals or the environment than their traditional counterparts," Stallman told the House Agriculture Committee in testimony on barriers to trade and food aid due to biotechnology.

Stallman said the most notable biotech trade barrier is in the European Union, which has imposed a moratorium on new approvals of biotech products, costing U.S. producers millions of dollars in lost sales. AFBF and other farm groups have urged the Bush administration to initiate a World Trade Organization (WTO) investigation into the EU moratorium.

"We believe that a WTO decision, which is expected to be in favor of the United States, is the only reasonable remedy available to U.S. growers to either lift the moratorium or impose retaliatory tariffs on EU products imported into the United States," Stallman said.

The EU has proposed enactment of labeling and traceability rules to replace the moratorium, a move Stallman said is also inconsistent with WTO rules. "As proposed, the labeling and traceability rules only make the problem worse by erecting new, unscientific barriers to processed food products in addition to agricultural commodities," he said.

Stallman told the committee the EU moratorium has fostered barriers to agricultural biotechnology in other countries as well. He said anti-biotech sentiment has impeded efforts in Africa to feed the undernourished and promote economic development.

Noting that widespread acceptance would be challenging and require ongoing persistence, Stallman urged the committee to support efforts by U.S. agricultural interests to help foreign governments and consumers realize the benefits of agricultural biotechnology.