Congressman Tom Tancredo

I was honoured to meet last week with Tom Tancredo, until recently a candidate for the Presidential nomination of the Republican Party.

We focussed on the world food price situation. Tom, who serves on the Africa and Global Health Subcommittee of the House of Representatives, fully shared the EU's concern about food prices. He mentioned that rice was now selling at $1000 per tonne.

To reduce the price by producing more rice, one would have to take land out of either palm oil production or rain forest, and neither of these options was acceptable, he said.

He believes that the natural operation of the market is the best way of finding an ultimate solution to the issue but he accepted that, in the short term, substantial food aid was needed to allow the poorest people in the world to get enough to eat.

I said that the EU believed that food aid should be provided for the purchase of food in the part of the world in which starving people were living. In this way, agricultural production in that part of the world would be stimulated, and the problem alleviated in the longer run. Sending food from America or Europe to these regions often involved a 4 month voyage on a ship and, when the food arrived, it undercut local producers.

We also discussed the emergence of China and India as economic powers, and the integration of immigrant communities in Europe. I remarked that France is making a big effort in that regard, as evidenced by the prominent positions in government now held by people of recent immigrant background.

Congressman John Yarmuth

John Yarmuth is a newly elected member of Congress from the Louisville area of Kentucky.

I told to him I would be visiting his district to attend the Derby at Churchill Downs. Congressman Yarmuth was at High School with the Honorary Consul of Belgium in Louisville, Al Welsh, who will host my wife and I at the Derby.

We discussed the need to provide additional funds for educational exchanges between the United States and the European Union. An agreement exists for exchanges of students to take place between groups of colleges on either side of the Atlantic.

Surveys show that Europeans who have had an opportunity of living in the United States for a period have a much more positive understanding of America than those who have not. It is already unfortunate that Congress has not been appropriating sufficient money to fund agreed exchanges on a matching basis with the funds in the EU budget but it is doubly so now that the exchange rate is making it very difficult for students from less wealthy backgrounds to study abroad.

John, who is a member of the Education and Labor Subcommittee of the House, was very receptive to this message.

Congressman Geoff Davis

Geoff Davis also represents Kentucky. Nearly half of the residents of his district live on the state border in the suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio. He served in the military from 1976 to 1987.

He gave me a thorough briefing on the situation in Iraq. He said that the security situation had improved and many benchmarks set for the Iraqi government had been met. He said that it was necessary to create a new balance of power in the region that would give stability.

He worried about the possibility that autocratically governed states might form a strategic alliance on natural resources, that could be damaging to the interests of the rest of the world.

We also discussed the need to achieve deeper understandings between the United States and Europe on how best to respond to very serious difficulties in financial institutions. We are fortunate that, so far, such difficulties that have arisen have done so mainly in institutions whose business was confined to one country. Managing the situation would be more difficult if banks operating in a number of countries were involved.

Congresswoman Diane Watson

Diane Watson represents Los Angeles and is a prominent member of the Black Caucus. Prior to coming to Congress, she worked in the education field and has a Ph.D. in education-related disciplines.

We discussed similar issues to those discussed with Congressman Tancredo, namely the food price crisis and the need for assistance to countries in Africa facing starvation. She told me that she had attended a hearing in the Foreign Affairs Committee that morning about reorganizing the US system of aid for foreign countries. She was interested in EU ideas on giving food aid in cash, rather than in kind. She was concerned that assistance not be wasted through corruption. She was interested in an EU submission on these issues for her Committee.

Congressman Michael Capuano

Michael Capuano represents an historic District of Boston. His District was once represented by “Honey Fitz” or John F. Fitzgerald (the Grandfather of President Kennedy), by President J. F. Kennedy himself, by Mayor Michael Curley, by the legendary speaker Tipp O'Neill and most recently by Congressman Joe Kennedy.

His District includes Boston's historic revolutionary war sites, Harvard University, and also the city of Somerville, of which Michael Capuano himself was Mayor before coming to Congress.

Our discussion focussed on the reform of the US Food and Drug Administration (the FDA). The EU wishes to work closely with Congress to ensure that the reform of the FDA delivers maximum protection to American consumers of food and drugs, without placing unnecessary obstacles in the way of business, and without putting undue costs on tax payers. We believe that this can best be done if EU and the US mutually recognise one another's food and drugs protection systems. Congressman Capuano also underlined the great contributions that successive generations of immigrants have made to his district and to the larger US.

Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson

Jo Ann Emerson represents the largest congressional district in the state of Missouri.

She serves on the powerful Appropriations Committee and specialises on agriculture, energy and the environment. We discussed the pending legislation on the FDA.

We also discussed bio diesel and the problem the EU has with the tax credit granted to US producers of bio diesel which they can use to sell bio diesel into Europe. This has the effect of US tax payers subsidizing European motorists, and of undermining the viability of Europe's bio diesel industry. This was not the original intention of Congress and I hoped that the difficulty could be resolved. The European Biodiesel Board has just lodged an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy complaint against US “B99” exports with the European Commission.

Congressman Ron Lewis

Ron Lewis also represents Kentucky and is retiring from Congress at the end of his present term, having served since 1994. He is a member of the Ways and Means Committee and specialises in social security and trade.

We discussed the prospects for the Colombia FTA. I said that the difficulty in passing this agreement revealed an increasingly negative attitude to trade in the US. Congressman Lewis said that he was disappointed with some of the anti-trade rhetoric currently being heard.

We discussed the effect of globalisation on jobs. He himself has had experience working to find alternative jobs where an industry closed down because of technological change. In Campbellsville, Kentucky, in his District, a Fruit of the Loom plant closed down in 1997 causing hundreds of layoffs. But, now, thanks to his efforts, Campbellsville is a hub for new jobs and has 13 newly-arrived companies employing 3,700 people. This diversification has actually been good for the town.

Congressman William Lacy Clay

William Lacy Clay is the son of a Missouri Congressman, who represented the state in the House for 32 years. He himself is a member of the Financial Services Committee. We discussed the proposed legislation to resolve the difficult situation faced by many homeowners in the United States.

He felt that the voluntary approach advocated by the Administration to the crisis facing some homeowners on mortgage rate renegotiation was not sufficient. He felt that a mandatory approach would be necessary if anything was to be achieved.

We also discussed insurance. I said that the current arrangement, whereby insurance providers have to register in each of the 50 US states individually, inhibits European companies from providing insurance services to Americans. This narrows the insurance market and reduces competition in ways that are not to the advantage of the American consumers. We discussed the blueprint of the Secretary of the Treasury for an Optional Federal Charter for insurance companies, which could help overcome this problem.

Congressman Chris Carney

Chris Carney represents the north-eastern corner of Pennsylvania. Many of his constituents commute to New Jersey and New York city, but it is a predominantly rural district with important dairy and poultry production.

Chris has served as a counter terrorism consultant to the US Department of Defense and continues to serve in the US Naval Reserve. He is a member of the Homeland Security Committee and of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

I outlined to him the ways in which the EU helps joint efforts on terrorism. Intelligence sharing, the European arrest warrant and a range of other EU legal instruments maximise the effectiveness of the counter terrorism effort in all 27 EU Member States. Congressman Carney was very receptive to this message and to the prospect of enhanced EU-US cooperation in this area.

I said we must inhibit recruitment to terrorist organisations and deal with the causes of terrorism. Some turned to terrorism because of uncertainties about their identity; others because of real grievances. I said that we ought to work on all fronts against terrorism, and that had to include working for a genuinely fair and durable settlement to all disputes in the Middle East, notably to the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. Irish experience showed that addressing real grievances was a valid part of any serious anti-terrorism effort.