Source: Xinhuanet

09-21-2006 14:41

Visiting U.S. Secretary for Agriculture Mike Johanns has said the United States is willing to improve its existing offer to cut billion-dollar subsidies to its farmers in a move that could revive the stalled world trade talks.

Johanns is in Cairns, the state of Queensland, to attend an expanded meeting of the Cairns Group, a coalition of 18 agricultural exporting countries that have been pushing for liberalization of trade barriers.

The meeting was expanded to include the United States and the European Union (EU) in order to breathe new life to the Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks stalled in July.

Johanns told The Australian, one of Australia's leading newspapers, Wednesday that the United States is willing to improve its existing offer, but Europe had to break out of its "1930s mentality."

"We're willing to be at the table and negotiate our way through this," Johanns said.

"We're willing to cut our subsidies ... But the EU has to be more flexible. They cannot continue to maintain very high tariffs. Even at the end of this, they'll still be able to subsidize their farmers at twice the level the U.S. would," he said.

Australia has proposed a plan requiring the United States to improve by 5 billion U.S. dollars its proposed cuts in farm support payments and the EU to better by 5 percent its offer of reducing average farm tariffs.

But the EU declared earlier this week that nothing more could be done at present.

EU's chief trade negotiator Peter Mandelson has rejected the plan as "undoable," saying raising the EU's offer on farm tariffs by 5 percent would go beyond what was reasonable and would require Europe to do more of the heavy lifting on reducing farm protection, when it had already promised more than its fair share.

It was reported that the plan is likely to be endorsed by the Cairns Group at the meeting.

 

Editor:Ge Ting