NARA, Japan, July 27: United States Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman defended a US proposal to slash global farm subsidies as two days of talks between global farm powers ended here on Saturday.

The Quint meeting of ministers from five major farming nations ended divided over whether the US plans contradicted the hefty domestic support it introduced in May.

But Veneman said the farm bill raises domestic aid to levels still below that of the European Union and Japan.

The new proposal will be put to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) next week for talks aimed at slashing global farm aid and knocking down trade barriers.

We are willing to make changes to our farm programs if other countries are willing to do the same, Veneman told a news conference at the end of the meeting.

But we want to put farmers around the world on an equitable playing field so that we can compete equally around the globe for agricultural products, she said.

The United States has been assailed by the European Union, Canada and Japan over its proposal, to be submitted to the WTO next week, to slash global farm subsidies by $100 billion. Australia, the other nation taking part in the Quint meeting, supports the plan.

The proposal aims to reduce trade-distorting supports, while aiming to reduce average farm tariffs.

But EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler said the plan was not well balanced and said it meant other countries would have to take stronger action than the United States itself.

If you read these proposals, you will see others should move much more compared to the movement from the US side, Fischler told a news conference.

I think, therefore, this is not a very good basis to find a common compromise in the (WTO) negotiations, he said.

Japanese Farm Minister Tsutomu Takebe agreed.

The US proposals do not take the differences of agricultural conditions among countries as they suggest drastic, unilateral cuts in farm subsidies, Takebe told a news conference.

The EU and Canada said the proposal also flies in the face of a US farm bill that distributes $180 billion to American farmers over the next five years, they said.

Only Australian Agriculture Minister Warren Truss welcomed the US plan.

It does seem to us to be consistent with the objectives set by the Doha Declaration, Truss told a news conference.

It is constructive that one of the major powers now has a negotiating position on the table.

WTO ministers agreed in Doha, Qatar, in November to hold talks on reducing export subsidies with the aim of eventually phasing them out and making substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic support.

WTO trade talks on agriculture began in January 2000 and numerical targets for subsidy and tariff reductions are due to be solidified in time for the next WTO ministers’ meeting in Mexico in September 2003, with proposals due next March.

Takebe said no concrete measures were agreed during the Quint meeting, but said the five ministers had agreed Australia would host the next talks.—AFP