MR. COUSE: Good afternoon. I'm speaking to you today as a community banker in Florida who works closely with the Florida sugar industry. My name is Miller Couse and I'm President of the First Bank of Clewiston. My family also owns and operates a small sugar cane farm.

Sugar farmers have been customers of our bank for over 65 years. They work hard and are not asking for a handout or any special treatment from the government. All they ask is to be treated fairly and reasonably. American sugar farmers are efficient by world standards and would love the opportunity to compete with other farmers under genuine free trade conditions, but they can not compete with foreign governments, nor should we have to.

I can tell you firsthand that the farm economy in this country is in its worst shape in decades. In the three years since the 1996 Farm Bill, commodity prices have fallen by 10 percent. Farm bankruptcies are proliferating and rural economies are in crises. Keep in mind that the U.S. sugar industry provides 420,000 American jobs in 40 states, many of them in small agricultural communities like mine. We need to protect these American jobs.

Therefore, please do not enter into any agreement that would cause further determent to the American farmer. We must first ensure that all countries comply with past agreements before the United States forges any new agreements. A flexible request offer type of negotiation strategy must be followed in the next trade agreement rather than the rigid, across the board formula. A one-size-fits-all formula approach does not work in banking, and it certainly does not work in agriculture.

In this Round of negotiations we must adopt a negotiation strategy that will address the huge disparities and support among various nations and turn the United States unilateral concessions to our advantage.

As a banker and an amateur economist I have always believed in free trade. Over the past several years, whether it's GATT or NAFTA, I keep seeing the American farmer being hammered when the U.S. participates in free trade on a one-sided basis. We would ask that you give us fair trade, not free trade. Thank you.

(Applause.)