American farmers are calling on the US administration to take a more aggressive stance on trade promotion, particularly targeting what they regard as the EU’s unnecessary restrictions on imports of genetically modified organisms.
The American Farm Bureau Federation, the biggest farm lobby in the US, called upon the US Trade Representative to ‘initiate a retaliation proceedings against the EU’ in a paper submitted to Washington this week.
It took issue with several sanitary barriers to American exports and said the EU had ‘failed to comply with its WTO obligations’ to provide for a science-based, timely and predictable process for reviewing ‘agriculture and food biotechnology products’.
Alongside the call for action over GM, the paper made reference to a long-running dispute about EU rules banning the sale of hormone-treated meat and a similar prohibition on chlorine-treated chicken.
The Obama administration has launched a 'National Export Initiative' with the goal of doubling exports and farm produce is seen as a key part of the effort.
NFU comment
‘The campaign serves to highlight a number of issues relevant to current US farm policy.
‘First of all, it illustrates the growing assertiveness of US farmers and their administration about the role that agricultural exports could play in helping steer the US economy towards a sustainable recovery. Earlier this year, US agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack spoke favourably of the part that farmers could play in the National Export Initiative .
‘Secondly, it illustrates the contrasting views towards free trade taken by farmers in different parts of the world. While the prospects of trade liberalisation tend to create anxiety amongst European farmers, across the pond Free Trade Agreements are often heralded as creating major opportunities for American farmers.
‘This reflects the enviable competitiveness of US agriculture. However, such an analysis would overlook the fact that US farm organisations are among a range of business lobbies that have argued against the adoption of a WTO Doha Round deal, on account of the fact that the last set of modalities offered limited scope to expand trade.'
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- Rick Englert - 05/08/2010
American agriculture's enviable competitiveness is largely due to government susidies in the form of tax concessions to the large US agricorporations. As a former 'top dog' still with too much world influence, America is only interested in free trade when it benefits their interests.