Promising news for farmers (en francais)

This is some of the most promising news I've seen on the efforts to reduce massive farm subsidies by the EU and the US. Here's hoping that the two sides can negotiate a deal.

US says ready to "take pain" to win WTO farm deal

ZURICH, Oct 10 (Reuters) - U.S. trade chief Rob Portman said on Monday the United States was ready to take "some pain" to win a deal on farm reform that is crucial to a world trade deal.

The U.S. trade representative, who detailed to journalists an offer to slash farm subsidies and tariffs, said the U.S. proposals depended on others also playing their part.

Washington, which says it could cut trade-distorting farm subsidies by 60 percent, wants the European Union and Japan to cut subsidies by 80 percent because they currently spend far more than the U.S. does.

"I hope today we can break the deadlock (on farm trade)," Portman said ahead of a round of meetings with trade ministers.

The European Union welcomed the U.S. initiative.

"The EU will match -- and indeed go substantially beyond -- the 60 percent cut in the most trade distorting support proposed by the U.S.," said a statement by European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.

Portman was due to explain his plan to some 23 trade and agriculture ministers at a gathering in Zurich called by the United States to overcome problems that have snarled World Trade Organisation (WTO) farm talks.

He said he foresaw three five-year phases for the proposed cuts in farm subsidies and import duties in rich countries, a key demand of developing countries in the WTO's Doha Round.

On subsidies, Portman said he needed the gap between what the European Union and the United States spend on domestic support, or subsidies, to narrow during the first phase to 2-to-1, from around 3-to-1 at present.

The first phase would run from 2008, the year any trade deal would be expected to come into effect, and would see the implementation of drastic cuts in subsidies and tariffs, with the latter falling between 55 and 90 percent.

A second five-year period would allow adjustment and adaptation to the new rules, followed by moves to eliminate all trade-distorting subsidies and farm tariffs by the end of the third period in 2023.

On the so-called blue box of farm subsidies, a sort of halfway-house between subsidies that seriously distort trade and those which have little impact, Portman said he was willing to see the ceiling lowered to 2-1/2 percent from the five percent currently being discussed.

Export subsidies, which the European Union has already offered to eliminate, would be barred from 2010, Portman told journalists.