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US farm subsidy threatens world trade talks: Diplomats

AFP, Geneva
New global trade talks risk becoming sidetracked by a bitter row between the United States and its principal commercial partners who accuse it of failing to honor its commitments to free trade, diplomats warned Tuesday.
Brushing aside international criticism, President George W. Bush signed a bill Monday to beef up US farming subsidies with an additional 83 billion dollars.
Key US commercial partners in Europe, Asia and Latin America have strongly condemned the move as making a mockery of free trade just as a new round of global talks to tear down trade barriers is getting under way.
The round is being held under the auspices of the World Trade Organization and was launched at a WTO ministerial conference in the Qatari capital Doha last November.
Washington's many critics view the legislation as displaying "total scorn" by the United States toward
its global trade commitments, according to one Geneva-based diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"We will be asking in the coming weeks for the United States to recommit itself publicly to the stance it took with us in Doha in pursuing significant progress as far as agriculture is concerned," Australia's Trade Minister Mark Vaile said on Monday.
Australia, a leading member of the Cairns Group of 18 exporting countries opposed to subsidies, has always targeted the European Union for its export assistance and has traditionally sided with Washington.
But Vaile said Australia was concerned by the "the apparent deterioration in the international environment," referring to the US farm bill and a bitter conflict over US steel tariffs.
He told reporters that a number of developments had possibly "changed the atmospherics" regarding the focus of the new Doha
trade round.
Under the new round, the 144 WTO members have agreed an ambitious programme of negotiations scheduled to run until early 2005, including the wide liberalisation of agriculture and a reduction in domestic farming subsidies.
Experts say the US bill is contrary to one of the main aims on agriculture laid down at Doha -- the reduction of domestic support for agricultural exports.
Congressional budget estimates say the measure will provide 181.5 billion dollars in farm subsidies over 10 years, an increase of some 82.8 billion dollars from current levels.
A diplomatic source said the farm bill, and the US steel tariffs, show that the United States "is going it alone and is not worrying too much about international cooperation".
"What counts above all are short term domestic and electoral interests. The impression is of a government without vision that is navigating by sight," the source said.