EU prepared to cut farm subsidies by 70 percent: Mandelson

The European Union is prepared to reduce official assistance to its agriculture sector by 70 percent, EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said.
Mandelson's statement, issued at talks in Zurich aimed at galvanizing World Trade Organisation negotiations on liberalizing global commerce, followed an announcement by the United States that it was ready to reduce governnment assistance to US farmers by 60 percent.
"The time has come for all of us to put cards on the table, to stop bidding and to start to play the hand," Mandelson told the meeting.
"To be precise, we are ready to reduce our (support) by some 70 percent assuming that other major subsidisers commit themselves to proportionate, but not equal reductions."
Earlier US Trade Representative Rob Portman called on the EU and Japan to reduce their farm subsidies by 83 percent. Their cut should be deeper because they are allowed to spend more under current WTO rules, he said.
Mandelson had previously suggested that the EU could make a 65 percent reduction.
Mandelson also said the EU would be ready to reduce by up to 60 percent its import duties on farm goods. Such duties have been a bone of contention in WTO talks.
The 148 nations in the WTO are trying to finalise a treaty that will cut barriers to commerce and make use of trade to reduce poverty in developing countries.
Their Doha Round talks, launched in the Qatari capital in 2001, have been deadlocked largely because of disagreement over the farm trade.
Developing countries have been pushing the EU and United States to do more to open their markets and cut subsidies, which they say distory world trade to the disadvantage of poor producers.
WTO members are up against a looming deadline -- they hope to have at least the bare bones of their treaty ready by December, when they hold a key summit in Hong Kong.