The chairman of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Development Round has said the US will have to reduce its overall food production subsidies to secure agreement in the global commerce talks.
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In his first formal report since the round was temporarily suspended last July, chairman Crawford Falconer said: “It is frankly inconceivable that the US will come out of this negotiation with an entitlement to spend more on overall trade distorting domestic support than it had when it came in.”
He added that since the WTO general council had indicated it would allow the US to subsidise its food industry with US$3bn more than in previous agreements, positions had hardened. “I do not believe there is the slightest chance that the [WTO] membership will wear that now,” said Falconer.
He suggested that the billions of dollars in US domestic food supplements acceptable to other members would “probably be in the teens”, almost certainly below the $19bn allowed following the last Uruguay Round.
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