GATT STUDYING AGRICULTURAL SUBSIDIES CEILING
The world trade body GATT said its
negotiators in Geneva are discussing a possible agreement for a
ceiling on agricultural subsidies.
    GATT director-general for agriculture Jean-Marc Lucq told
reporters here that the talks had not got anywhere yet as the
participants were still reluctant to lay all their cards on the
table.
    He said the ceilings under discussion would only be applied
to those members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
with high subsidy spending.
    Lucq said a survey by the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development showed that its 24 member western
industrialised countries subsidised their agriculture by a
total average of more than 100 billion dlrs a year from
1979-81.
    Within that total, the U.S. Spent 26 billion dlrs, Japan 24
billion, and the European Community 57 billion dlrs.
    Yves Berthelot, an official for the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development, said the suppression of
agricultural subsidies in temperate countries, which would
allow a resurgence of world prices and a lowering of domestic
prices, would be difficult but inevitable.
 Reuter
