White House to Ease Stance on Farm Subsidies at GATT Talks

The Bush Administration, softening its position in global trade talks, said today it is now prepared to allow some trade-distorting farm subsidies in a new accord to liberalize international trade.

U.S. Trade Representative Carla A. Hills told a news conference that the United States will soon make a revised agricultural proposal at talks being held under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade that will no longer insist on eliminating farm subsidies.

The United States has led other farm-exporting nations, such as Australia and Canada, in demanding that GATT’s Uruguay Round talks, named after the country where they were launched in 1986, agree on a complete phase-out of the subsidies.

Failure to agree on reforming farm trade could jeopardize the entire Uruguay Round, which is due to wind up in Brussels in early December with agreements on 15 separate trade sectors, covering everything from textiles and tropical products to the vast services industry.

Hills suggested that in the face of steadfast refusal by the European Community to eliminate such distortions, the United States was prepared to bargain.

“I continue to have as a negotiating objective the desire to get rid of trade distortions,” she said. “The fact that I have these negotiating objectives does not mean that I’m not negotiating.”

Hills said the Administration will propose that internal subsidies and restrictions to market access be reduced by at least 70% and that export subsidies be cut more deeply.

The proposal will be made before Oct. 1, she said.