12/5/06 Johanns on Keenum Nomination

Johanns on Keenum Nomination. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. The post of Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Ag Services is regarded as one of the three most important at USDA. That position has been open since August. But on Wednesday - the U.S. Senate Ag Committee will conduct a hearing on the President`s nomination of Mark Keenum for the job. U.S. Ag Secretary Mike Johanns says Keenum will be a great addition to USDA. JOHANNS: He brings to us just a tremendous amount of experience on the Senate side. I could not be happier about having him on our team and my hope is that the Senate will move through the confirmation process because we can really use him. Keenum would replace J.B. Penn - who resigned earlier this year to head back into the private sector. Penn participated in a number of meetings on the Doha Development Agenda and worked alongside Secretary Johanns in efforts to push for progress toward a global trade agreement. So far - there hasn`t been much progress - and according to Johanns - it will take more than another offer from the U.S. to revive the Doha Round. JOHANNS: It's not that we have an ace in our pocket, it's literally a situation where we've said for months, this is negotiation. If other countries are willing to step up, the United State of course is going to be willing to step up. So this is not going to be a situation where we move alone, we all have to move together and my hope is that will happen. Agriculture has been a key stumbling block for the Round - including market access, tariffs and U.S. farm subsidies. The U.S. made an offer to cut farm subsides by 60-percent - and while some have said that`s already too much - Johanns says U.S. farmers simply don`t want to farm for subsidies. JOHANNS: They want to farm for price. They want to farm for marketplace. And I tell you we are doing some very exciting things to give them that exact opportunity. I will tell you what every farmer has told me whether it's in a public forum or after where they've pulled me aside or at the coffee shop. They don't want to farm for a subsidy program. They really want the independence, they really want the farm for price and that's what we've got to do. We got to do everything we can to make that happen for them. According to World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy - there`s only a brief window of opportunity to resume the Doha Round of trade talks. In fact - he says that window will likely close permanently sometime around the end of March 2007 That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.