CANADA SEES GLOBAL ACTION TO REDUCE FARM SUBSIDY
Canada's Foreign Minister Joe Clark
said there is greater international recognition on the need to
reduce government-imposed subsidies on agricultural produce.
    "There is now recognition that agricultural subsidies must
be reduced, and other reform measures pursued," Clark told a
conference of ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations)
foreign ministers and their counterparts from six
industrialised countries.
    A delegate said Clark's call for "halting the subsidy war in
the agricultural products" to ensure a stable world trading
system received warm support from Japan and Australia.
    Clark said the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) has called for "reduction of direct and
indirect subsidies and avoidance of predatory or protectionist
trade practices."
    The OECD stand was endorsed by the Venice economic summit
this month. However, he said he did not expect any quick
solution to the subsidy problem.
    Clark said Canadian farmers, like those of ASEAN, "are
caught in the cross-fire of an agricultural subsidy war that is
not of our making."
    Clark said his country will provide 10 mln Canadian dlrs as
aid over thu next five years to developing countries of the
South Pacific region to finance fisheries and other marine
projects.
    "The new program, which we estimate will cost about two mln
Canadian dlrs a year, will be implemented by te International
Centre for Ocean Development (ICOD) in close cooperation with
the major South Pacific regional organisations," he said.
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