A proposed deal by global trade ministers to give duty-free access to the world's poorest nations may not be accepted by the US Congress if it does not open up new markets for American farmers, a top US senator said on Tuesday.
"If that's all that comes out of (the World Trade Organisation meeting) in Hong Kong, then we've accomplished nothing," Republican Saxby Chambliss, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, told Reuters in an interview.
"I'm not sure that sort of deal is something that Congress would accept ... to say we're just going to open up our markets without having our farmers here have access to new markets," he added.
"I want to make sure we deal with developing countries in a fair and appropriate manner, but there's got to be a broader deal," Chambliss said.
Reform of rich nations' farm subsidies has been a sticking point in WTO talks to lower global trade barriers.
The EU's offer to cut tariffs on farm imports has been criticised by the United States, Brazil and Australia as too limited, but Brussels says it has gone as far as it can without proposals from Brazil and other developing countries to lower trade barriers in other areas.
Ministers from the EU, Japan, Brazil, India and Australia last weekend sought to downgrade expectations for a big ministerial meeting in Hong Kong next week. Instead, the ministers said they would try to reach a deal on duty-free access for the world's poorest countries to ensure they got something from the trade round.
"Frankly I'm extremely disappointed in the reaction of the European Union," Chambliss said. "They are trying to deflect the lack of a counter-offer on their part by saying we need to broaden this out and talk about developing countries. The crux of the deal is really the EU coming forward with something (on agriculture)."
Chambliss also said Congress would push ahead with plans to write new farm legislation regardless of the state of world trade talks.
The current farm law, written in 2002 to include a variety of subsidies and support programs for American farmers, is scheduled to expire with the 2007 crop harvest.
About a dozen House Democrats introduced a bill last month that would extend the programs by one year, giving lawmakers time to analyse the outcome of global trade talks before writing a new US agriculture policy.
"I am not supportive of extending the farm bill beyond 2007," said Chambliss, who largely controls the agriculture agenda in the US Senate. He cited changes to the agricultural environment, energy policy and new trade pacts such as the US-Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, which needed to be taken into account in new farm policy.
"If we don't have the conclusion of the negotiations, then that's not going to stop us from writing the farm bill. We'll have to write the farm bill in anticipation of what might come out of the WTO," he added.
Chambliss said he would "tentatively" begin in spring of 2006 trying to formulate a schedule for hearings in Washington as well as in the field.
Last week, US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said that now is the time for the WTO to change global farm subsidies and tariffs. Such changes will be more difficult to advance after Congress begins rewriting the US farm law, he said.
Direct government payments to American growers are expected to rise sharply in 2005 to an estimated $22.7 billion.
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