[As Amended by House Committee of the Whole]
House Concurrent Resolution No. 5005
By Special Committee on Rail Transportation
1-5
10 A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION urging Congress to remove or re-
11 strict the use of trade sanctions as they apply to agricultural products
12 [and to pass a moratorium on agribusiness and agricultural
13 mergers and acquisitions].
14
15 WHEREAS, the export of agricultural commodities has provided the
16 United States the only positive return on its balance of trade; and
17 WHEREAS, the only way to insure that a positive return on the bal-
18 ance of trade continues is to allow international markets to remain open;
19 and
20 WHEREAS, the use of unilateral economic sanctions rarely achieve
21 its goal, but cause substantial harm to the producers of products; and
22 WHEREAS, the storage of grain on the ground in Kansas is just one
23 example of the adverse affects sanctions have on agricultural products;
24 and
25 WHEREAS, economic sanctions hinder the export of agricultural
26 products, exacerbating the transportation of such products and possibly
27 lowering the price received by the Kansas farmer for such agricultural
28 products[; and
29 [WHEREAS, Monopoly power, whether it arises in industry, la-
30 bor, finance, agriculture or government, is a threat to our com-
31 petitive enterprise system and the individual freedom of every
32 American; and
33 [WHEREAS, An effective antitrust policy and program should
34 include clarification of farmer cooperatives' rights to encourage
35 the development of cooperatives and producer bargaining asso-
36 ciations; and
37 [WHEREAS, The continued mergers of agribusiness firms that
38 supply input products, process meats and purchase farm commod-
39 ities are reducing firms to the level that the free enterprise system
40 that is based on competition is greatly threatened; and
41 [WHEREAS, The Kansas legislature is opposed to mergers, ac-
42 quisitions or leveraged buyouts which tend to create a monopoly
43 of production, production inputs, marketing, processing and trans-
2
1 portation situations or which reduce competition in production in-
2 puts, acquiring, pricing, processing or transportation of commod-
3 ities and products]: Now, therefore,
4 Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of Kansas,
5 the Senate concurring therein: That Congress remove or restrict the use
6 of trade sanctions as they apply to agricultural products and that Congress
7 insures that the use of trade sanctions will result in meaningful results;
8 and
9 [Be it further resolved: That Congress pass a moratorium on ag-
10 ribusiness and agricultural mergers and acquisitions until such a
11 time that new rules to govern structural changes are in place; and
12 [Be it further resolved: That the United States department of jus-
13 tice immediately investigate the mergers that are occurring in the
14 agricultural industry and action that will protect producer inter-
15 ests be taken when needed that will stop this trend; and
16 [Be it further resolved: That Congress, in conjunction with the
17 U.S. department of justice, should continue to monitor the agri-
18 cultural industry for antitrust abuse and make sure that the cur-
19 rent process is successful in maintaining a needed level of com-
20 petition; and]
21 Be it further resolved: That the Secretary of State be directed to send
22 enrolled copies of this resolution to [the President of the United
23 States,] the President[, Majority Leader and Minority Leader] of the
24 United States Senate, the Speaker[, Majority Leader and Minority
25 Leader] of the United States House of Representatives, the secretary of
26 the United States Department of State[, the Secretary of the United
27 States Department of Agriculture, the Attorney General of the
28 United States] and to each member of the Kansas Congressional
29 Delegation.
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