Wrong Time for Protectionism, Lyng Warns State Trade Panel

Enactment of protectionist trade legislation this year would only harm the nation’s dwindling farm exports just as they are about to rebound after five years of decline, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Richard E. Lyng said Friday.

U.S. agricultural exports plummeted from $44 billion in 1981 to $26 billion last year, Lyng said.

“Protectionism is the wrong way to go, and this is the wrong time to be protectionist,” Lyng told members of the California Council for International Trade in Los Angeles.

The 24-member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development gave their unprecedented, and unanimous, consent last week to tackle agricultural trade issues, he said, adding that it is time to begin to “eliminate the spider’s web of subsidies and trade barriers.”

Mindful of increasing awareness among Japanese consumers over high domestic food prices, Lyng sought to stir unrest in Japan by distributing price comparisons of key food products in Japan and the United States. The Japanese pay $30 for a pound of prime steak that costs $5.29 in this country, and medium-grain rice that costs 66 cents a pound here sells for $1.62 there, he said.

“We are fellow sinners,” Lyng said. “But we’re willing to put all these restrictions and subsidies on the table for negotiation.”