Brazil, which already has won a series of trade rulings over U.S. cotton subsidies, expressed dissatisfaction with Washington on Wednesday at the conclusion of talks aimed at avoiding a new WTO dispute between the two countries.
But Flavio Marega, head of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry's dispute division, said it was still too early to say whether his country would ask the World Trade Organization to launch a formal investigation into whether total U.S. payments to farmers have exceeded WTO limits.
The U.S. provided information at the consultations that was "insufficient and vague," Marega told The Associated Press at the WTO's Geneva headquarters. He said Brazil would decide in "a couple of weeks or months" if it will ask the global trade body to establish an investigative panel.
The South American country says the United States has exceeded in six of the last eight years the $19.1 billion that it is permitted to spend on the most controversial forms of farm subsidies. It also accuses U.S. export credit guarantees of being in breach of WTO rules, echoing a complaint made earlier this year by Canada.
Washington has withheld details of its subsidy programs from the WTO since 2001, but maintains that its payments are within the rules.
U.S. officials declined to comment after the consultations. Gretchen Hamel, a spokeswoman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington, said last month that the "claims were unfounded when they were made by Canada, and they are just as unfounded when they are made by Brazil."
The complaint was filed in July amid strained commercial relations between the two countries, which publicly blamed each other for the collapse of trade talks two months ago. The talks were seen as critical in the 151-member WTO's drive to conclude a new global commerce pact.
Brazil forced the U.S. to overhaul its subsidy programs for American cotton growers after winning a landmark WTO decision in 2004. American and Brazilian officials say that a confidential ruling last month by a WTO compliance panel found that U.S. cotton payments were still violating global trade rules.
The decision could prompt Brazil to seek retaliatory sanctions.
Critics of the subsidies say they unfairly deflate international prices, making it harder for poorer nations to develop their economies by selling their agriculture produce abroad.Associated Press
