SEN. ASHCROFT: OIL PRICES MUST COME DOWN

JACKSON -- Oil-exporting countries need to reduce fuel prices, U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft told about 20 area farmers Monday.

Ashcroft and Missouri Farm Bureau President Charlie Kruse met outdoors with farmers at Bob and Gladys Nitsch's farm.

"We must help Missouri's farmers weather the present hardship of low commodity prices and skyrocketing costs for fuel," he said.

Ashcroft has introduced a resolution in the Senate asking President Clinton to call on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to lift its product quotas prior to the March meeting of OPEC.

The resolution also endorses efforts to support production of alternative fuels and remove regulations that unduly limit domestic oil production. The United States imports 55 percent of its oil.

Ashcroft said unfair foreign trade barriers need to be removed.

Ashcroft also wants vigorous enforcement of world trade rulings that call on Europe to open its market to U.S. beef and favors fair-market access for genetically enhanced agriculture products.

Ashcroft opposes trade embargoes, saying they hurt Missouri farmers, not foreign countries.

"We need freedom to market," he told farmers.

Trade embargoes end up helping other countries' farm exports while hurting America's exports, Ashcroft said.

The Senate last year passed an Ashcroft measure to do away with trade embargoes, but the House didn't enact the Ashcroft legislation. The senator said he will continue to push for an end to trade embargoes.

Ashcroft also said agriculture markets domestically need be opened up, voicing concern that a handful of companies control most of the nation's agricultural processing plants.

Four grain companies, he said, own 80 percent of the nation's grain storage facilities, and a handful of companies own most of the meat-packing plants, Ashcroft said.

Ashcroft said Congress and the federal Justice Department will continue to look at the issue.

Asked by a farmer if GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would be good or bad for agriculture, Ashcroft said he wasn't familiar with McCain's record on the subject.

Ashcroft said he supports Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush and said Bush has a record of dealing with agriculture issues as governor of Texas.

Ashcroft said McCain hasn't been a supporter of ethanol production. Ethanol is a fuel made from corn.

The Republican senator from Missouri predicted Congress again would try to eliminate the estate tax.

"I think we ought to have the death penalty for the death tax," Ashcroft said.

The Missouri Farm Bureau has presented the Golden Plow Award to Ashcroft. The award from the American Farm Bureau is presented annually to a single senator and single member of the House of the Representatives. The award recognizes lawmakers for their support of agriculture.