EU Ready to End Farm Subsidies; U.S., India, Brazil Must Match

EU Ready to End Farm Export Aid; U.S., India, Brazil Must Match

May 10 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union is ready to end subsidies supporting its agricultural commodity exports as long as other nations, including the U.S., promise to cut farm grants and lower import tariffs, the bloc's top negotiators said.

The EU, which spent 3.4 billion euros ($4 billion) to compensate exporters of beef, wheat or milk powder for lower world prices in 2002, previously said it was only willing to cancel subsidies for products ``of interest'' to developing countries at World Trade Organization talks. Poorer nations refused to compile such a list.

``The list approach has not worked. This is why we have taken the decision that the EU would be ready to move on export subsidies,'' Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler told a news conference in Killarney, Ireland. That offer, set out in a joint letter with Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, isn't ``unilateral'' and must be matched by other countries and include cuts to border tariffs and payments to farmers, he said.

The WTO's 147 governments are trying to reach a framework for a global agreement by the end of July that could boost the international economy by $500 billion. Trade ministers from more than 30 nations gather in Paris this week in an effort to make progress after talks collapsed in Cancun, Mexico, in September.

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