mr. michael beale, president and ceo of national cooperative business association. mr. e joins us today on behalf of the national cooperative business association where he serves as the president. and ceo. before joining ncba, he serves as president and ceo of the missouri credit union association and president and ceo of the maryland district of columbia credit union association. he initially held positions at the world council of credit unions and the north carolina credit union league. anybody need any credit in the audience, you ought to see mr. beale. welcome, mr. beale. i look forward to hearing from you. we'll wait to introduce the second panelist after you conclude, sir. please feel free to summarize your comments. >> good morning chairman roberts. you've introduced me ncba works to provide educational, technical, expertise and advocacy that helps cooperatives thrive and survive in today's economy. my remarks today will focus on the new day in u.s.-cuba relations and some ways forward to foster better more productive and positive relationships between the two cou

mr. michael beale, president and ceo of national cooperative business association. mr. beale joins us today on behalf of the national cooperative business association where he serves as the president. and ceo. before joining ncba, he serves as president and ceo of the missouri credit union association and president and ceo of the maryland district of columbia credit union association. he initially held positions at the world council of credit unions and the north carolina credit union league. anybody need any credit in the audience, you ought to see mr. beale. welcome, mr. beale. i look forward to hearing from you. we'll wait to introduce the second panelist after you conclude, sir. please feel free to summarize your comments. >> good morning, chairman roberts. you've introduced me ncba works to provide educational, technical, expertise and advocacy that helps cooperatives thrive and survive in today's economy. my remarks today will focus on the new day in u.s.-cuba relations and some ways forward to foster better, more productive and positive relationships between the t

first is mr. beale. mr. beale joins us today on the half of the national cooperative business association received search -- research as the president and ceo. before joining ncba, he served as president and ceo of the missouri credit union association and presidency of the maryland education of columbia. he additionally held positions at the world council of credit unions and the north carolina credit union league. if anyone needs credit in the audience, just had to him. welcome. i look forward to hearing from you. you will wait to introduce the second panelist after you conclude sir. please feel free to summarize your comments. mr. beall: good morning, chairman roberts. we work through technical edge striptease and advocacy that helps -- technical expertise and advocacy that helps. my remarks will help us focus on the new day in cuba relations and help us foster more productive relationships tween the two countries, notably through agricultural trade. as a preface, i want to convey to thoughts between u.s.-

i think this has been a really important discussion and first mr. beale i want to underscore, when you're talking about cooperatives, they're very positive they have created cooperatives and the ability for more decisions to get made by farmers, although there is more to do as you say to get the government out of that position so that the farmers are the ones really driving the train here. it was interesting to me, as we're talking, mr. kaeler, you're talking about what they're interested in in terms of equipment and tools and so on. we talked a lot about farm equipment and tractors. and the fact that the new decision that the president made was to allow farm equipment and the fact that they had cooperatives, most of them didn't have one tractor. and they were making decisions as to who got a tractor. and how many tractors. and so there is a lot of opportunities for us to be able to expand but i think cooperatives are very much a part of the structure going forward. so i'm glad to hear your testimony. i'm wondering, because you've been to cuba so many tim