LONDON, July 5: Recent moves in the United States to protect the domestic steel industry and boost subsidies to farmers could hinder efforts by the European Union to overhaul its costly agricultural aid programme, WTO Director General Mike Moore has warned.

Moore was speaking to AFP’s financial news arm AFX as the EU’s executive commission prepared to unveil radical farm aid reforms next week.

“I think the problem of it is that, while it has not hurt us here, if you happen to be a reforming minister and want to do something about agriculture in Europe, it now becomes that much more difficult to convince your colleagues,” he said from World Trade Organisation headquarters in Geneva.

The European Commission’s proposals, due for release on Wednesday, are expected to spark strong opposition from France, Ireland and southern EU member states that are traditionally averse to cuts in farm subsidies.

Moore said the US actions would also make the work of reform-minded politicians in developing countries that much more difficult.

“If the adults are going to throw food at each other at the dinner table, you can expect some of the other kids to start not using the knife and fork,” he warned.

Washington’s principal trading partners were outraged in March when President George W. Bush ordered three-year tariffs of between eight and 30 per cent on certain steel imports.

Bush said he took the action to give the struggling US steel industry time to restructure in the face of stiff foreign competition.

The president later ignited another firestorm of criticism when he signed legislation sharply increasing government assistance to farmers.

Both actions were denounced around the world as blatantly inconsistent with Washington’s WTO commitments to free trade.

But Moore said he did not share the sentiments of those who have charged that the “actions by America have polluted and contaminated our process here” at the WTO.

The Bush administration is committed to free trade, he maintained, noting that the harmonious relationship between US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy had eased previous transatlantic tensions.—AFP