A US Congress farm plan that could increase agricultural subsidies does not help efforts to conclude a long-delayed global trade deal, World Trade Organisation Director-General Pascal Lamy said on Thursday. After meeting visiting senior US lawmakers in Brussels, Lamy said.
"I was quite transparent in saying that this Farm Bill is not sending a great signal that the US are serious about reducing their trade-distorting subsidies." Congress last week enacted the $289 billion US Farm Bill over a presidential veto, worrying the European Union and other trade powers such agricultural exporter Brazil which have been pressing Washington to cut farm subsidies in the WTO talks.
The WTO's Doha negotiations to lower barriers to exports around the world are in their seventh year but face a crucial test in the next few weeks, after which the US presidential election and other factors may mean years of further delay.
WTO mediators last week published proposals they hope can help close the gaps, ahead of an expected meeting of ministers in June or July to seek a breakthrough. The US Farm Bill has been a concern raised by several countries involved in the Doha negotiations in Geneva, trade officials have previously said.
Lamy, speaking in the European Parliament, said he expressed some of those concerns to the head of the Agriculture Committee in the US Congress, Collin Peterson, and other American lawmakers who were also in Brussels on Thursday. "The only chance you have to trump this Farm Bill is a WTO deal," he told the parliament's trade committee.
Lamy also addressed critics of the WTO negotiations within the European Union. "Europe is magnifying what it is giving and minimising what it is getting," he said. "It's not true to say that the EU is going to pay in agriculture without getting anything in industrial goods."
France, Ireland and some other EU countries with big farm interests have accused Brussels of offering too many farm concessions and say the deal shaping up in Geneva is a bad one for Europe. The region's farming lobbies, its industry and car sectors have also voiced dismay at thee latest compromise proposals Lamy reiterated his hope that a long-elusive breakthrough remains possible.
Comments
Comments are closed.