LONDON: Consumer groups and aid agencies rounded angrily on the reforms to the common agricultural policy on Thursday, warning that the compromise would leave tax-payers continuing to foot the bill for huge European farm surpluses which would harm producers in the developing world.

Campaigners accused Prime Minister Tony Blair of putting the global trade talks in jeopardy by failing to stand up to the French President, Jacques Chirac, on agricultural protection.

Dame Sheila McKechnie, director of the British Consumers’ Association, said: “This is a tragic missed opportunity, and once again it is consumers who will pay the price.”

Phil Bloomer, head of advocacy at Oxfam, said: “These proposals confirm our worst fears. There is nothing to celebrate. European agriculture will still be subsidized to the tune of pounds sterling 30 billion, creating vast surpluses that will be dumped on poor countries.

Mr Bloomer added that Britain had tried but failed to secure a meaningful deal on CAP reform. The issue of sugar had been so divisive that the EU had to take it out of the CAP reform discussions. Reform of milk subsidies had been fudged, the big decisions deferred until 2007.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.