Thursday, 25 July 2002

Zoellick wants to harmonize agricultural protection levels "As many of you know, the average world tariff in agriculture is about 62 percent. The tariffs in particular countries range much higher, up to 1000 percent. The United States level is 12 percent, European Union 31 percent, Japan about 50 percent. As Ann mentioned, last year the European Union spent about $2 billion on export subsidies, the United States spent about $10-or-$15 million. We want to try and eliminate that, and much of the world agrees with us that that would be the most trade-distorting aspect to remove. The European Union has a cap on the trade-distorting subsidies of $60 billion. Japan has $30 billion; United States has $19 billion. So the type of positions that we take over the next weeks will be important in defining this agenda. We want to try to set the table for the negotiations in ways to maximize our interests and not just show up and see what others have served for the table. We have a lot to gain, but we won't accept efforts of others to try to define this negotiation in a way as if it were just about U.S. farm policy. What we'll be trying to do is to first focus on harmonization, in other words, bringing others down closer to our levels, and then over time trying to seek that goal we sought for many years about elimination." 9:48:13 PM    comment []