11/03/05 U.S. reaction to E.U. offer on trade

Farm and Ranch November 3, 2005 The European Union late last week put forth an offer in the Doha Round of World Trade Organization talks that includes a 70 percent reduction in domestic farm programs and tariff reductions of up to 60 percent. But the E.U. also demands additional flexibility on the tariff cuts that it would make. And that's troubling to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. Johanns: "Flexibility the E.U. seeks in tariff reduction would be very concerning just simply because it creates a situation where whatever is gained by the tariff reduction could be lost by the flexibility." The E.U. would also exempt eight-percent of its products from any tariff reductions. Both the U.S. and 20 developing nations call for only one percent to be listed as sensitive when it comes to import tariffs. And when it comes to the area of domestic farm support; Johanns: "Our whole effort here in that area is to try and close the gap. The European Union has tremendous WTO authority in terms of what they can with domestic support. We are trying to bring that closer to a situation where they don't have so much in comparison to us." Both Johanns and U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman called the E.U. offer disappointing but Johanns said as along as parties are talking there is always the chance of a breakthrough. There's only about six weeks until the next World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Hong Kong. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.