Audio comment from Sen. Grassley is also available by calling 800-545-1267. Dial 311, then 1. Or, go to www.senate.gov/src/radio and click on Grassley.
"At the urging of trading partners, the United States and European Union reached an agreement, in principle, on a conceptual framework for further discussions on agricultural negotiations. This framework more clearly defines the issues. And this is certainly progress. But the devil is in the details, and many aspects of the proposal need to be developed and fleshed out over the next several weeks.
"We weren't going to make good progress in the World Trade Organization negotiations without an agreement on agriculture. In a sense, much of the rest of the Doha agenda has been stalled by our inability to bridge this gap.
"There's still a lot of work to do even though many of the fundamental concepts that we worked for on behalf of American agriculture are part of the framework agreement. As Chairman of the Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over international trade policy, I'll work closely with my constituents and colleagues for the best agreement possible for American agriculture."