WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/AG/NG/W/32
12 July 2000
(00-2850)
Committee on Agriculture
Special SessionOriginal:  English
SECOND SPECIAL SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE
29-30 JUNE 2000
Statement by the United States
Statement by the United States  Introducing
A Proposal for Comprehensive Long Term Agricultural Trade Reform
Presented by:  Greg Frazier, Special Trade Negotiator for Agriculture and Food Policy, USTR
August Schumacher, Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, USDA
The United States places high priority on this meeting.  With your highly capable leadership,
we are moving forward with the WTO's important mandate to reform international agricultural trade.
The United States adds its congratulations to you on your chairmanship and looks forward to working
with you.  The United States also commends all delegations for their thoughtful presentations andcontributions to this most important endeavour.
Yesterday, Ambassador Barshefsky and Secretary Glickman gave a public presentation of the
US proposal in Washington.  They were joined by a bipartisan group of senior Congressional leaders
and representatives of the American agricultural community.  I am pleased to report that the proposal
was well received, especially by the US agriculture community, which recognizes the importance of
an ambitious start to multilateral agricultural trade reform.
The US proposal builds on the structure of existing WTO rules for agriculture, identifying a
framework and clear - and we believe attainable - goals for far-reaching ambitious reforms.  The
objective of the United States is to reduce substantially high levels of protection and trade-distorting
support that disadvantage competitive farmers, ranchers and processors and that distort internationalmarkets.
Even after the significant accomplishments of the Uruguay Round, in too many instances
governments control market access.  In too many instances, government programmes dictate
production and marketing decisions - decisions the United States believes are best made by farmersand the natural carrying capacity of their land.  Too often still, productive and efficient farmers,
ranchers, and processors are confronted with trade-distorting policies and unfair competition from
treasury subsidies.
While preserving a legitimate role for governme nts to invest in their agricultural and rural
economies, the US proposal will remove a major source of trade-distortion that some domestic farm
programmes cause.  By improving access to food and freeing the flow of trade in agricultural goods
and products, the US proposal will enhance the security of the global food supply, likewise
strengthening the food security of nations still strugg ling to attain that goal.  The United States also
addresses the special challenges and needs of developing and least developed countries in its proposal
by ensuring that further reforms take into account their circumstances.G/AG/NG/W/32
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We have not only the opportunity to address the distortions that harm international
agricultural trade; from the US view, we have the obligation and responsibility to undertake, and
complete successfully, this challenge.  Key points of the US proposal include:
• substantial reductions or elimination of all tariffs without exception, as well as
substantial reductions or elimination of disparities in tariff levels;
• substantial increases in all tariff-rate quotas;
• elimination of export subsidies;
• disciplines on the use of export restrictions on agricultural products to enhance the
stability and predictability of world food markets;
• disciplines on single-desk state trading enterprises, import and export;
• simplification of rules applying to domestic support, and establishment of a ceiling on
trade-distorting support that applies proportionately to all countries;
• focused disciplines covering trade in products of new technologies; and
• recognition of the special circumstances in developing countries and the importance
of enhancing food security through a range of reform efforts.
I want to highlight three themes in the reforms the United States proposes:
• First, there can be no product exemptions in a meaningful negotiation.  For example,
the United States envisions tariff cuts, in-quota and out-of-quota, and quota-growth
for all products.
• Second, these negotiations must substantially reduce or eliminate existing disparities
in WTO schedules that allow some countries to levy high tariffs or provide
disproportionate levels of support.
• Third, meaningful, balanced progress can be achieved by focusing our efforts on the
most trade-distorting policies - such as export subsidies, uncappedtrade-distorting domestic support payments, high tariffs, and unjustified restrictions
on products of new technologies - even as we continue to tighten rules on the range of
policies that can affect agricultural trade.
On that point, I will turn the microphone over to my colleague, Under Secretary
August Schumacher , who runs the domestic support and foreign programmes for the US
Department of Agriculture, to elaborate upon the US proposal.
Our proposal articulates a vision for the organization of agricultural policies for the new
century.  We believe that real reform is necessary to put our agricultural economy on a sound footing,
and is in the best interests of all WTO members.  The US approach recognizes the rights of countries
to support farmers and rural communities, but countries also have the responsibility to shoulder thecosts themselves rather than imposing them on other countries, especially developing countries.
Consequently the support should be delivered in the least trade distorting manner possible.
Some of the members represented in this room support agriculture through extensive
government programmes, each with their own particular agricultural characteristics.  Our proposalprovides an avenue for support while limiting the adverse effects on other members by focusing the
delivery of support through non-trade-distorting measures.  Other members do not provide such
extensive support, but must compete with subsidized exports and face market access barriers.  Our
proposal will reduce barriers to their trade while cutting the level of subsidized competition they face.
And of course developing countries generally do not provide large amounts of trade-distortingsupport, do not use export subsidies, and have an interest in reducing barriers to their exports.  Our
proposal will address each of these priorities, in addition to recognizing that special circumstances
exist in developing countries that need to be considered in the negotiations.G/AG/NG/W/32
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While some members are prepared for faster reform than others, the core elements of our
proposal, like those established at Marrakesh, constitute the soundest basis for future agricultural
systems.  That is why our proposal calls for different treatment for trade-distorting measures - that is,
all measures linked to prices or the production of specific commodities - and measures at most
minimally trade-distorting.  Trade distorting suppo rt needs to be reduced further from existing bound
levels, and the new caps need to eliminate the disparities that allow countries to provide
disproportionately large levels of distorting support relative to the size of their agricultural economy.
Non-trade distorting measures need to be encouraged, and we envision these negotiations taking into
particular account the programmes used in developing countries oriented toward fostering more
efficient and market-oriented production.
I am approached on a daily basis in my country by farmers and representatives of farm groups
who tell me that they are concerned about making ends meet in the current farm environment of low
prices and surplus stocks.  In spite of this concern, our proposal to channel support through non-trade
distorting measures and to reduce levels of trade-distorting support has attracted, as
Ambassador Frazier noted, broad-based support from the US farm community because of the inherent
logic of moving forward on a multilateral basis to reduce trade-distorting subsidies, establishproportionate support limits across all countries, and develop support programmes that get the
government out of the production decisions of farmers and ranchers.  That is the vision of US
agriculture and we hope it will become the vision which other WTO members can share.
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