Agence France Presse | June 26, 2003
World Trade Organisation (WTO) director general Supachai Panitchpakdi on Thursday welcomed the EU's agreement on farm policy reform, saying it would revive deadlocked world trade talks on agriculture.
"I see this would lead to more movement in areas of agriculture," he told journalists.
Farm ministers of the 15-nation European Union agreed earlier in Luxembourg on a radical reform of the bloc's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), cutting most links between farmers' production levels and their subsidies from 2005 and redirecting some of the subsidies to rural development.
The EU's farm subsidy system has been a major hurdle in WTO talks on liberalising global trade in agriculture.
"We have to decipher what is in the agreement," Supachai said, commenting on the CAP reform.
"At least it gives more life to our negotiations at the moment," he added.
The 146 countries of the Geneva-based WTO on Thursday resumed talks on agriculture under the three-year Doha Development Round, launched in the Qatari capital in November 2001.Agence France Presse:
