Wednesday 7 March 2012

March 5 - Washington DC

Flew into Washington DC last night after 8.5 hour flight from London . This morning we travelled to the Canadian Embassy - this photo is our group at the embassy. We met both the Canadian and Australian Agricultural Councillors for a presentation on trade between Canada, USA and Australia. Learnt that the worlds largest bilateral trade agreement exixts between USA and Canada - worth $645 billion US p.a. Canada imports winter fruit and veg from USA and USA imports lots of grains and beef from Canada. Australia exports large amounts of beef, wine, lamb and some citrus to the USA.
After lunch we met with senior Democrat and Republican staff to hear about the Farm Bill. This Farm Bill is rewritten every 5 years and sets the agriculture investment policy and budget. There is currently a bit of excitement about the Farm Bill because it is overdue for release right now. They are hoping it will be completed by September but is looking unlikely because of the nation's election. After the meetings we did a bit of sight seeing around Capitol Hill.  
It is very cold - as I was looking at the White House it began to snow. This is my first ever snow event. Good fun but freezing!!

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