I thought my 3,000 plus miles in the last 9 days was a lot of travel but our Sec. of Ag Mike Johannes is doing much more. He’s travelling in China and Africa July 9-21 for multilateral and bilateral meetings on agricultural trade and development. Although it doesn’t have frequent postings he is writing a travelogue of sorts. I kind of think a blog would be a better way to do it but then what do I know? Here’s an excerpt from his latest post.
Monday, July 11, 2005 Posted 2:00 AM BEIJING, CHINA
I’ve been to China a number of times over the past several years. Each time I return I see significant changes. First of all, China’s economy is expanding rapidly. The pace of development is tremendous; that’s especially true in the larger cities. This is an economy to be reckoned with. It is certainly not an economy to turn away from — China is simply too good a market for our agriculture products.
It is important that I travel internationally to raise important issues with our international counterparts. One reason I am in Beijing is to work through some issues related to our ability to export beef into the Chinese market. We had a significant breakthrough. The Chinese agreed to send a technical team that will be in the U.S. this October. That is a very positive development. Full post