Agri News | March 4, 2002 | By Jean Caspers-Simmet, Agri News staff writer
AMES, Iowa -- The new farm bill must be compatible with U.S. trade agreements, says Jim Moseley, deputy U.S. secretary of agriculture and an Indiana farmer.
Speaking at last week's Agricultural Forum "Prices, Policy and the WTO" in Ames, Moseley said the United States must take the lead in negotiating freer and less distorted trade, and its farm policy must back its international trade commitments.
"This farm bill is being developed under highly important international considerations," Moseley said.
When the freedom to farm act was created in 1996, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Uruguay Round were just starting to be implemented. Prices were good and exports strong.
"It was a time of Nirvana," Moseley said. "Now things have changed. Exports have slowed, prices have slumped, and the means of domestic support is getting a lot of attention. Our farmers are among the most efficient in the world. We must have free trade. Our farmers need new developing markets."
Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick made substantial progress at the 4th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in November by setting an agenda that tears down walls that hurt U.S. farmers, Moseley said.
U.S. agricultural trade negotiators are working for lower tariffs to expand market access for U.S. agricultural products, Moseley said. Trade barriers for agriculture are still unacceptably high. The average global tariff on agricultural products is 60 percent. It's less than 5 percent on other industrial goods leaving the country. The average agricultural tariff in key developing and transitional markets is even higher. The average U.S. agricultural tariff is 12 percent.
"That's a troubling disparity," Moseley said.
U.S. negotiators want lower export subsidies. The European Union currently accounts for 90 percent of export subsidies in agriculture.
"We know it will be tough, but it's time for agricultural products to be on the same footing as other products traded in the world," Moseley said.
U.S. trade negotiators also intend to reduce trade distorting domestic agricultural subsidies.
"This is going to be a real challenge," Moseley said. "As we complete work on the farm bill, this is an issue the world is raising with the United States."
Reducing trade distorting agricultural support around the world will help boost prices, but how do the United States and other countries provide an economic safety net that's market oriented yet doesn't distort production?
South America, Australia and other U.S. trading partners are concerned that the next farm bill, which will result in record farm spending, will lead to increased rade distorting spending. Countries question the U.S. commitment to free trade.
The Bush administration has made it clear that the next farm bill must be consistent with international trade obligations and will push that point as the conference committee completes the farm bill, Moseley said.
"U.S. food and farm policy must reflect the realities of the global marketplace simply because so much of our future growth depends on those markets," Moseley said. "We have to pay greater attention to the compatibility of domestic farm programs and the impact they have on our international activities. Domestic agriculture policy must be fashioned to serve our interests which lie in us being able to compete and prosper in a global context. We cannot close the borders into this country and expect a viable agriculture. As a farmer, I and most of us here see no other alternative."Agri News:
