A discussion on the relationship between the World Trade Organization and Iowa’s agriculture will be the focus of the Agricultural Forum held at Iowa State on Friday, March 1. The subject is “Prices, Policy and the WTO.”

“We really went to look at what are our international obligations under the WTO and how those obligations influence our ability to write domestic farm policy,” said Bruce Babcock, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development director.

The day-long forum, which begins at 8:30 a.m. Saturday in the Scheman Building, will include speeches from economic and agricultural analysts from around the world.

Among the speakers will be Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa; Robert L. Thompson, World Bank Senior Advisor; and Catherine Woteki, dean of the College of Agriculture.

Dermot Hayes, professor of agricultural economics, will be the final speaker of the day.

“My area is in value-added exports,” Hayes said. “I’ll be looking at the next [World Trade Organization] negotiations and describing how it might influence our value-added exports.”

Hayes said the United States currently exports 10 percent of the pork and 12 percent of the beef it produces. He expects that importation by Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Canada, Taiwan and the European Union will continue to increase the quantity of value-added exports.

The assistant director of Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, Keith Heffernan, said he expects an attendance of between 200 and 300 people for the 14th annual forum.

The attendance at the forum depends on the timeliness of the topic, he said.

“Greater than half of the audience was from out-of-state individuals,” Heffernan said. “It was probably the most comprehensive conference on the subject at the time.”

This year’s ag forum will be based on the same premise of bringing the discussion of international trends to Iowa.

“What I try to do with this is bring the people that are actually analyzing and making farm policy to central Iowa and engage them in a forum,” Babcock said.

Heffernan said the focus of the forum will be about what the WTO means to Iowa’s export of livestock and grain.