TOP NATIONS AGREE OVER FARM TRADE ISSUE
Ministers from the major
trading nations have for the first time made a concerted
commitment to review the whole distorted structure of world
farm trade, Canadian Trade Minister Patricia Carney said.
    "We think we can get some movement on this," she told
reporters at a briefing following informal talks with the U.S.,
Japanese and European Community (EC) trade ministers here.
    Canada, strongly supported by Australia, has championed the
cause of both developed and developing nations which have seen
their farm trade suffer largely due to a farm subsidy war
between the United States and the EC.
    Japan"s protected agricultural markets have also attracted
criticism.
    The issue is of extreme importance to many indebted,
developing nations which often rely totally on one or two farm
sector exports to sustain their economies but which cannot
compete with the subsidised U.S. And EC products.
    "Canada can afford so many billions of dollars (to do so),
but many countries cannot," said Carney.
    She said the EC had changed its previous unhelpful attitude
and had raised proposals similar to those of Canada under which
to discuss the issue.
    Talks will now continue at the Organisation of Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD), which meets next month, and
at the series of discussions on a new world trading framework,
begun at Punta del Este, Uruguay, last year.
    Carney said Japan had also agreed to take a positive role
in the farm talks, and that the United States was willing to
see short-term progress, as long as long-term solutions were
not affected.
    Canada"s five point programme demands that farm product
prices must reflect open world market prices, that any support
for farmers incomes should not be linked to production
incentives, that there should be no new farm subsidies, no new
farm import barriers, and that any decisions should be
implemented collectively.
    The farm trade problem was almost completely ignored by the
industrialised world until Canada raised it last year at the
Tokyo summit of seven leading industrial powers.
    The distortions created by subsidies and protectionism have
created some absurd situations.
    For example, to protect its farmers the Japanese government
buys Canadian wheat and sells it at 10 times the purchase price
to Japanese consumers.
    "So we end up borrowing in the Japanese (financial) market
to help pay subsidies to keep our farmers while they make a
profit on our wheat to help pay the price support for their
farmers," said Carney.
    The problem causes pain for many nations and increases the
already dangerously high debts that they owe mainly to U.S.,
Japanese and EC banks.
 REUTER
