U.S. HOUSE PANEL EXTENDS EEP, URGES USSR OFFER

  The U.S. House Agriculture Committee
  approved proposals to extend the life of the Export Enhancement
  Program, EEP, through fiscal 1990 and urged the Reagan
  administration offer EEP wheat to the Soviet Union.
      The proposals were approved as amendments to a
  comprehensive trade bill moving through Congress this year.
      In addition to the amendments on EEP, the committee
  approved several proposals which could restrict imports of
  lamb, casein, sugar-containing products and tobacco. Those
  amendments affecting imports face an uncertain future because
  the House Ways and Means Committee, which has overall
  jurisdiction over trade legislation, will oppose them,
  Congressional sources said.
      The effect of the EEP amendments would be to extend the
  life of the program five years through fiscal 1990 rather than
  the current three years through fiscal 1988.
      The amendments, offered by Rep. Dan Glickman, D-Kan., also
  would increase funding for the program to 2.5 billion dlrs from
  1.5 billion now.
      Furthermore, the committee passed an amendment offered by
  Rep. Glickman which instructs the U.S. Agriculture Department
  to value EEP bonus commodities at market value, not acquisition
  value. Glickman said the change would make the program 30 pct
  less expensive to operate.
      The provision on EEP wheat to the Soviet Union, offered by
  Rep. Bob Smith, R-Ore., does not require the administration
  make an offer, but urges such action.
      The committee approved an amendment, offered by Rep. Glenn
  English, D-Okla., requiring the Secretary of Agriculture to
  begin discussions with other major grain producing countries
  aimed at jointly reducing world grain production.
      Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter yesterday opposed the
  amendment, saying such commodity agreements do not work.
      Among the host of amendments to restrict imports approved
  by the panel, the most significant would require quotas on
  imports of goods containing more than 25 pct of a bulk farm
  product that is subject to U.S. quotas. The amendment, offered
  by Rep. Arlan Stangeland, R-Minn., is aimed primarily at
  curbing imports from Canada of products containing sugar and
  foreign foods containing dairy products. It also may affect
  peanut, cotton and tobacco imports, Committee sources said.
      Another amendment would place a quota on U.S. imports of
  casein, a dairy product shipped to the U.S. primarily by New
  Zealand and Ireland.
      The panel also voted to apply to lamb imports the same
  countercyclical import quota law which is operating for U.S.
  beef imports.
      Other miscellaneous amendments included:
      -- Urging the administration consider retaliating against
  Japan and South Korea if those countries do not remove
  restrictions on beef imports.
      -- Boosting the amount of U.S. grain which must be shipped
  each year under a food aid program called Section 416 to
  800,000 tonnes from 500,000 tonnes now.
      -- Requiring the Agriculture Secretary conduct a study of
  the Canadian Wheat Board import licensing system for wheat to
  determine if it is a non-tariff trade barrier.
      -- Requiring the Agriculture Secretary reimburse the
  National Corn Growers Association up to 500,000 dlrs for the
  costs of defending the U.S. feedgrains program against a
  Canadian countervailing duty case this year.
      -- Urging the administration oppose the Canadian decision
  to apply a duty on U.S. corn imports, and a proposal by the
  European Community to apply a vegetable oils tax.
      -- USDA conduct a study of the findings of a National
  Commission on Agricultural Export Policy, which recommended a
  reorganization of USDA's trade policy apparatus.
  

