10/12/05 A bold proposal at the Doha round

10/12/05 A bold proposal at the Doha round

Farm and Ranch October 12, 2005 The United States this week launched a plan to slash farm subsidies and break a deadlock in the Doha Round of world trade talks. Johanns: "It has been received as a bold move." That's Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns speaking from Geneva yesterday about the proposal in which the U.S. would make farm payments cuts of about 60%. All nations would get rid of export subsidies and import tariffs. And U.S. farmers would get much more access to foreign markets. Some lawmakers are expressing concern that U.S. farm policy is being written by trade negotiators, not the U.S. Congress. Johanns' response to that; Johanns: "We aren't writing the farm bill here. Congress will write a farm bill. The best approach in policy will be debated in the halls of Congress." The National Association of Wheat Growers said the U.S. proposal to cut 60 percent in Amber Box programs and 2.5 percent in the Blue Box cap was shocking to the industry in its size. NAWG said that for the industry to stand behind such a proposal there must be true harmonization in the trade distorting practices used by other WTO members and specific reference was made to monopolistic export trading enterprises. NAWG also noted this offer to remove a large portion of support programs comes at a universally difficult time for U.S. farmers and ranchers facing unknown highs in fuel and other input costs along with low market prices. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
Previous Report10/11/05 U of I grant for ethanol from straw
Next Report10/13/05 USDA raises wheat price outlook