The Honorable Clayton Yeutter, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, is scheduled to speak at the U.S. Grains Council’s 50th Annual Board of Delegates Meeting next month.

The meeting, to be held July 18-21, 2010, will celebrate the Council’s 50 years of international market development for U.S. corn, barley, sorghum and their co-products.

Ambassador Yeutter’s affiliation with the Council began in the 1960s when he returned to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and became involved in international affairs.

“I was impressed that [the Council] had already established a number of offices and had excellent people doing a superb job of getting the recipient companies interested in feed grains; not an easy task at the time,� Ambassador Yeutter said.

Given Ambassador Yeutter’s experience, not only as Ag Secretary but as a U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), he is aware of the importance of the promotion of agricultural exports, given the large scale of global competition.

“The United States has been a free trade competitor in markets around the world,� he said. “While the United States had to work harder to be successful, promotion programs, like those enacted by the Council, were ultimately the key to success.�

Ambassador Yeutter practices in the international trade and food and agriculture areas at Hogan and Hartson law firm in Washington, D.C.

Ambassador Yeutter served as the USTR from 1985-88, and while there led the American team in negotiating the historic U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, the precursor to the North American Free Trade Agreement. He also helped launch the most ambitious trade negotiation in history, the 100-nation Uruguay Round, which culminated in the creation of the World Trade Organization.