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US ready to cut farm subsidy, if...
November 20, 2003 18:15 IST
Last Updated: November 20, 2003 19:59 IST
The United States on Thursday said it was ready to cut down on its export subsidies and domestic farm support provided other countries too move in that direction.
"We are quite willing to eliminate our subsidies and reduce quite dramatically domestic support only if other countries with subsidies much higher than ours do so," the US Assistant Trade Representative Ashley Wills said in New Delhi.
In an industry gathering, he said, for the US to cut down on its farm support it was necessary that other markets of the world, including India opened up.
India should lower tariffs on its farm produce, which would be in its own interest, he said.
Wills said he was disappointed that "Cancun (last World Trade Organisation ministerial meet) came unstuck" and hoped the world would now move beyond rhetoric and recrimination to reasoned discussions to bring negotiations to a happy conclusion.
He said it was not too late to get the Doha Development Round going again with lowering of tariffs which would actually be beneficial to the poor countries.
"I am hopeful of moving ahead with the WTO agenda despite the multilateral differences", he said.
"I do not agree with my wife about everything but I am happily married", he quipped.