Science Forums 2

[DougF]

This type of thing has been going on for years and I don't think it will stop any time soon. but times they are a changing.

New York Times
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
LEAD: The United States and the European Community are deadlocked in their negotiations on how to eliminate the more than $200 billion spent each year on farm subsidies around the world.

The United States and the European Community are deadlocked in their negotiations on how to eliminate the more than $200 billion spent each year on farm subsidies around the world.

That is not surprising, since each side is standing by the position it staked out before the talks began. American officials said today that ministers of the European Community's 12 nations were vigorously resisting President Reagan's proposal to scrap all farm subsidies within 10 years.

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson, said, ''To talk about the abolition of all forms of support by the year 2000 is unrealistic.''

And Willy de Clercq, the European Community's Commissioner of External Relations, said Washington had ''soured the negotiating climate'' by increasing export subsidies for American farmers, reducing quotas on sugar imports and taking other protectionist steps.

Some ministers view Washington's recent increase in export subsidies as brinkmanship aimed at putting pressure on the Europeans to accept President Reagan's plan. Officials From 24 Nations

The deadlock was confirmed as ministers from the 24 nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development began a meeting in Paris. Each spring the ministers gather to discuss economic cooperation. This year, largely because of American insistence, farm subsidies are dominating the debate.

Clayton K. Yeutter, the United States trade representative, said of the European officials, ''It is disturbing that they say they should have trade-related subsidies forever.''

At last year's O.E.C.D. meeting, ministers agreed in principle that farm supports should be eliminated eventually. But American officials complain that no significant progress has been made since then in developing a framework to abolish them.

Officials of the European Community have called on Washington to scrap its protectionist measures before they agree to a long-term phasing out of subsidies.

The European ministers say they have moved boldly to reduce subsidies, cutting wheat prices by 25 percent and reducing dairy herds by five million cows despite intense domestic political pressure. European Expresses View

''This momentum will not be possible if other producers do not make similar efforts,'' said Jacques Delors, president of the European commission, the community's executive branch. ''Even what has been achieved so far would be put into doubt if others undermine the measures taken by the community.''

American officials deny that Washington policy amounts to brinkmanship. Agriculture Secretary Richard E. Lyng said, ''The United States has found it necessary to expand export programs to offset the unfair trade practices of other nations.''

Abolishing farm subsidies has become a major priority of the Reagan Administration in trade talks. The Americans, in criticizing subsidies, say they cost taxpayers billions of dollars, contribute to farm surpluses and hamper low-cost food production in the developing world by subsidizing farmers in the industrial world.

Last summer the Administration formally proposed abolishing farm subsidies in negotiations carried out in Geneva under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Subsidy Growth Reported

In a study released Tuesday, the O.E.C.D. - a 28-year-old Paris-based organization that promotes economic cooperation - found that governments around the world provided $246 billion in farm subsidies in 1986, almost twice as much as in 1980.

LEAD: The United States and the European Community are deadlocked in their negotiations on how to eliminate the more than $200 billion spent each year on farm subsidies around the world.