US subsidy sends mixed message to Seattle, say Aussies

By Boyd Champness

AUSTRALIAS Trade Minister Mark Vaile has expressed concern “about the dual message” coming out of Washington as Australia garners support for the Millennium Round of trade talks in Seattle at the end of the year.

Last week the White House announced a five-point agenda for Seattle, headed Opportunities for American Agriculture.

It included working to eliminate export subsidies, reducing tariffs, ensuring market access for ag-biotechnology and reducing trade-distorting domestic supports – a similar wish-list to what Australias agricultural leaders will be hoping for in Seattle.

“All this on the same day that they (the US Government) announced US$8.7 billion (£5,3bn) in support for US farmers,” a despondent Mr Vaile told The Weekly Times.

The US Senates decision to approve the largest farm aid package in US history highlights Americas hypocrisy when it comes to reforming international trade, he said.

The confusing signals coming from the USA, just weeks away from the launch of the World Trade Organisation round, have attracted widespread anger.

National Farmers Federation president Ian Donges told a conference recently that much of the worlds agricultural subsidisation policies were aimed at retaining the countryside for the enjoyment of city people and tourists, rather than assisting farmers to become more competitive.

“Keeping pretty cows on pretty fields in Europe, maintaining hedgerows on British farms for aesthetic reasons, and retaining a Japanese rice industry to prevent flooding in Tokyo are spurious reasons for penalising the worlds free-market farmers,” he said.