Business | Economy
Trade powers tackle agriculture issues
Ministers have gathered in Geneva for talks on a global trade pact, but it was clear that the make-or-break meeting would not be easy as trade powers tussled over intractable issues in agriculture.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:04 July 21, 2008
Geneva: Ministers have gathered in Geneva for talks on a global trade pact, but it was clear that the make-or-break meeting would not be easy as trade powers tussled over intractable issues in agriculture.
On Sunday the various alliances among the WTO's 152 members, from the Cairns group of food exporters to the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries were due to meet to plot their strategy.
Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim denounced misinformation and double standards pervading the talks, and said much work was still needed, particularly in farming, to prevent the meeting from ending in failure.
"There is a whole array of questions in agriculture that have to be solved, and we don't know how they will be solved or if they will be solved," the agriculture superpower's foreign policy chief told a news conference after meeting WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy. "A big effort is still needed in agriculture."
US subsidy
Amorim homed in on what is likely to be one of the critical issues - the level of farm support in the United States - as ministers haggle over tariff and subsidy cuts.
He dismissed talk of a 70 per cent cut in US farm subsidies, noting that the lowest new proposed level would still be double what Washington is currently paying.
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