EU, Japan attack US plan to reduce farm-goods tariffs

The European Union and Japan lashed out at a US proposal that would slash farm-goods tariffs worldwide, saying yesterday it went against the core principles of global negotiations on farm liberalization.

EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler slammed the US plan to cut global tariffs to 25 percent or less from a current average of 62 percent in a meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Tsutomu Takebe, ahead of a meeting of ministers from top farm powers.

"They are totally incompatible with the ministerial declaration adopted in Doha," Fischler was quoted as saying by a Japanese Farm Ministry official.

The WTO launched a new round of trade talks in the Qatar capital last November with a view to achieving a broad outline on farm trade liberalization by March 31, 2003.

At the time, trade ministers from more than 140 nations adopted a declaration in which non-trade concerns such as food security and environmental conservation would be taken into account in the farm negotiations.

"We'd like to establish global trade rules that are realistic and flexible," Fischler told Takebe.

The EU and Japan have long argued that tariffs and government handouts to farmers should be cut only moderately to allow farming to continue to play a key cultural, social and environmental role in the life of the nation.

The US -- along with the 18-member Cairns Group of agriculture free traders, including Australia and Canada -- is pressing for drastic steps to lower trade barriers.

Japan's Takebe echoed Fischler's criticism of the US plan, saying it did not reflect existing trade rules and ignored efforts of WTO members to scale back subsidies.

Besides tariff-reduction proposal, the US on Thursday called for limiting nations' use of trade-distorting subsidies for domestic farmers to five percent of the value of their agricultural production.

The five percent limit would mean reducing the amount of trade-distorting subsidies allowed by US$100 billion globally.

The radical proposal comes as an attempt to regain the initiative after months of withering attacks from WTO members after a new law doling out billions of dollars in subsidies to US farmers.