PULLMAN, Wash. — Daniel A. Sumner, director of the Agricultural Issues Center at the University of California, Davis, will deliver the Phillip C. Holland Lecture at Washington State University on March 23.
Sumner, who is also the Frank H. Buck Jr. Professor in the department of agricultural and resource economics, will lecture on “The World Trade Organization and Its Implications for Pacific Northwest Agriculture.”
The free public lecture is scheduled at 4:15 p.m., Thursday, March 23, in Todd 216.
Sumner served as deputy assistant secretary and later assistant secretary for economics in the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1990-93. He was responsible for oversight and guidance of data collection, projections, economics research and policy analysis for U.S. agriculture.
From 1987-89, he served as senior staff economist on the President’s Council of Economics Advisers. Sumner is considered to be one of the leading experts on policy issues surrounding U.S. agricultural trade.
The World Trade Organization assumed the powers of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1995. Since then, the WTO has stood in the middle of numerous controversies and has dealt with major trade disputes between major powers.
The WTO’s rulings on tuna, petroleum products and shrimp have riled environmentalists. Many groups have expressed concern over the lack of transparency in WTO proceedings. Others fear loss of sovereignty to the trade body. Many of these issues came to a head at the WTO summit in Seattle last December.
The Phillip C. Holland Lectureship was established in the will of WSU President Ernest O. Holland and named in honor of his father. It was established to bring lecturers of national and international stature to the institution to speak on questions dealing with the social problem, finance, education or other special fields, either in liberal arts, fine arts, science or engineering.
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