11/14/08 AFBF wants to jump start trade talks

The people who are trying to negotiate a new world trade deal are still a long way from the finish line and the American Farm Bureau says its time to try something different. SALMONSEN "Negotiations take their time. You need slow, steady, sober progress but what we're seeing so far has just been the lack of progress." Farm Bureau Trade Specialist Dave Salmonsen says his group plans to work with other sectors like manufacturing and the service industry to look for new ways to jump start the process. SALMONSEN "We're facing this global economic problems and trade needs to be part of the answer. We're trying to put forward ideas out there and get a conversation going with people to take these issues seriously." Salmonsen says just dealing with the World Trade Organization structure is cumbersome and then there's what's known as 'the single undertaking.' SALMONSEN "And in brief it means that nothing is settled until everything is settled. What it effectively does is that you make no progress because you're never sure everybody has signed on to something and you can move ahead because some country can always bring up something that has been talked about in the past and want to renegotiate that." Salmonsen says history has shown that putting up trade barriers to protect a country in time of recession actually slows down the recovery effort. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott