US and EU farm ministers will meet on Tuesday to try to find a way of advancing stalled world trade talks, by seeking agreement on how to overhaul their agricultural subsidies.
Cutting rich nations' crop and export subsidies is deemed vital if World Trade Organisation negotiations are to succeed and allow action on reducing trade barriers in other areas like industrial goods and services.
But progress so far has been halting. Though it is hoped that a high-level meeting in Hong Kong in December will produce a draft accord, several other targets have been missed.
US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns will have informal discussions with EU Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel in Washington on Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman for the US Agriculture Department said.
"They're going to be talking about the US-EU approach and proposals in the World Trade Organisation. We're trying to find a lot of common ground so we can move the process forward," said spokesman Ed Loyd.
"We all sense the urgency of coming to a positive result by the time we get to Hong Kong and certainly that's what the two will be discussing - how we can achieve that. We all want this objective here."
The EU shook up its agricultural policy in 2003 and now feels the United States should take the next step on cutting domestic farm subsidies. But US farm-state lawmakers argue the ball is still in the EU's court since its farm subsidies and tariffs remain higher than in the United States.
"I think they can move beyond where we are today ... I still think it's possible to finalise specifics - tariff cuts, domestic support cuts, market access gains - parameters of a possible way to move forward," said Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association and co-chair of AgTrade, a coalition representing more than 100 US farm and agribusinesses that will attend the WTO talks.
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