BROADER U.S. EEP SOUGHT BY REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS
Republican members of the House
Agriculture Committee said they will propose amendments
tomorrow to a pending trade bill increasing funding for the
export enhancement program, EEP, and significantly expanding
the scope of the program.
    At a press conference, Republican lawmakers said they would
propose expanding EEP to include all countries "willing to
purchase additional commodities at reasonable prices."
    In addition, the Congressmen said they would propose
extending the life of EEP to five years from the current three
years and increasing the EEP funding ceiling to 2.5 billion
dlrs from 1.5 billion at present.
    The Agriculture committee tomorrow will begin drafting
amendments to an omnibus trade bill now before the House.
    Responding to the Republican plan, Agriculture Secretary
Richard Lyng and Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter said they
favor a flexible, targeted use of EEP instead of an
across-the-board program which they termed too costly.
    The Republican Congressmen also said they will offer an
amendment to the trade bill instructing the U.S. Agriculture
Department to value the bonus commodities used for EEP at the
market value, rather than the cost of acquisition.
    But Lyng said USDA already plans to change to market value
accounting rather than acquisition value, in order to avoid
hitting a funding ceiling for eep of 1.5 billion dlrs.
    Lyng said under market value accounting only about 700 mln
dlrs of EEP commodities have been used to date. Using
acquisition value, USDA officials said the value is higher.
 Reuter
