Agence France Presse | July 10, 2003
President George W. Bush, criticised for shielding US farmers with huge state aid, on Thursday told Europe and Japan to slash agricultural export subsidies blamed for choking Africa's bid to feed itself.
Bush said he discussed the issue in talks here with Botswana's President Festus Mogae on the third stage of his five-leg African tour.
"African leaders are worried that subsidies, agricultural subsidies are undermining their capacity to become self-sufficient in food," Bush said.
"I told them the reality of the situation, that we have proposed a very strong reduction in agricultural subsidies.
"However, in order to make that come to be, there needs to be reciprocation from Europe and Japan in order to make the policy effective. We're committed to a world that trades in freedom and we will work toward that through the Doha round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)," he added.
The United States accuses the European Union of making its farm products falsely competitive in world markets with vast agricultural export subsidies.
But Bush signed a 10-year, 190-billion-dollar farm bill in May last year which provides special subsidies to US cotton and grain growers.
Africa activists severely criticised the legislation, fearing its impact on the continent's farmers.
Bush also argued Thursday that "the other part of the problem is the lack of technological development in agriculture. And we talked about the need for genetically modified crops throughout the continent of Africa."
The US leader has in recent months accused the European Union of preventing Africa feeding itself with its opposition to such crops. This infuriated EU leaders.
Opponents of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) argue that the tactic is little more than a politically motivated tactic to expand the market for US biotechnology food corporations keen to supply such crops to African farmers.
They say that scientific assessments on the possible harmful affects of genetic modification is not yet complete, and there is considerable suspicion over such products among Europeans.
The United States, angry at the EU's failure so far to lift its four-year-old moratorium on GMOs, filed a complaint with the WTO in May.
African governments are especially concerned at cotton subsidies to US farmers, which have driven down the price of the crop on world markets, harming their agricultural industries.Agence France Presse:
