Global talks to slash agricultural subsidies and duties are "going backwards" after a group of developing countries insisted on protecting their farm markets, a senior US trade official said on Thursday.
Negotiators from 149 member countries of the World Trade Organisation have holed up in Geneva for six weeks of intensive talks on agricultural and manufacturing trade in a bid to save long-stalled plans for a new global pact to boost the world economy and lift millions out of poverty.
The farm talks are seen as the linchpin to a broader deal. Many poorer nations, which rely mainly on agricultural exports, want rich nations to promise to dismantle their farmers' protections before they open their new service and industrial markets.
But with the United States and the European Union at a stand-off, the spotlight has been away from developing countries until now.
On Thursday, however, the G33 group of developing countries with large but poor farming sectors issued a statement standing by their proposal that at least 20 percent of their tariff lines should eligible for "special product" status and therefore protected.
The group was angered by calculations requested by Crawford Falconer, chairman of the agriculture talks, which he said showed their proposal would shield 98 percent of their farm trade.
Developing countries say the mandate of the WTO's so-called Doha round of talks is to help alleviate poverty and as such any pact should make allowances for their fledgling markets. Wealthier nations and some economists say the benefit to poorer nations will come from fully opening those markets to increased trade.
"It's a problem. The big issue here is 'where's the market access' and we've gone a little bit backwards there," the US official told Reuters."
"These developing countries are coming under pressure now that they haven't been before, because so much has been focused on the EU," he added. "I hope it's tactical. I hope they're ready to make their contribution."