Portman expects comparable cuts from trading partners

ZURICH (AP)--The top U.S. trade official laid out a new proposal Oct. 10 on agricultural tariffs and subsidies, saying the European Union and Japan must now promise to do more to cut aid to their own farmers.

With two months remaining before a deadline for a framework global trade treaty, ministers from World Trade Organization member countries were once again confronting the thorny issue of U.S. and EU farm subsidies.

"The U.S. is willing to take some pain," U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said. "But those who subsidize more need to reduce more."

Portman said the U.S. is ready to make "steep tariff cuts" as ministers from the world's largest commercial powers gathered to revive global trade talks. He called on the EU and Japan to come up with improved offers for reducing agricultural support programs.

The EU "uses about three times more support than we do," he said. "The ratio needs to be about two to one to be rational, balanced and practical."

According to the offer, the U.S. would cut its trade-distorting subsidies by 60 percent. But Portman said the EU and Japan would have to make cuts of 80 percent, since their subsidy levels are higher.

Brussels has so far offered to cut its subsidies in products including wheat, dairy goods and rice by 65 percent. The U.S. proposal also calls for the elimination of all agricultural subsidies and tariffs by 2023.

The next step is for the EU to match the U.S. initiative, said Australia's Trade Minister Mark Vaile, adding that Washington's proposal "could be" the breakthrough negotiators have been seeking.

European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said Brussels would be making its own proposals on cutting farm aid.

"We will be going further than the U.S.," he said. "Europe is ready and willing."

A ministerial meeting in Paris last month failed to break the deadlock.

Canadian Trade Minister Jim Peterson commended the U.S. proposal, which he said could give fresh impetus to negotiations. "I believe this initiative by Mr. Portman is just what we needed," Peterson said. "This is a positive start but we still have a long way to go."

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy has said that the EU and the U.S. will have to make adjustments in agriculture policy if progress is to be made in the present round of global trade talks, which is already well behind an original December 2004 deadline.

Lamy believes the EU needs to open its market more to foreign producers while the U.S. should offer to cut the level of financial support it gives its farmers, his spokesman, Keith Rockwell, told The Associated Press. "Movement in those two areas would be helpful not only for the agriculture negotiations overall, but for the entire round."

The WTO's 148 members are supposed to agree on an outline for a global trade deal at a Hong Kong summit scheduled for the end of the year.