An Iowa native who’s now an international trade negotiator says President Bush has instructed his trade team to put agricultural issues on the table. Allen Johnson, a native of Long Grove, Iowa, just returned from Geneva, Switzerland, where he met with representatives from other countries to try to lay out the framework for the next round of global trade talks.Johnson says Congress needs to grant President Bush expanded authority to quickly approve international trade deals, authority which the five previous presidents had.Johnson is Special Agricultural Negotiator for the U-S Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick. He says Zoellick is fighting hard for U-S Agriculture.Johnson and his boss were at the Iowa State Fair yesterday. Johnson worked for Senator Charles Grassley in the 1980s and was at one time the executive director of the Iowa Soybean Association.
