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AU Ag Minister: Lawyers outsmarting diplomats
 Warren Truss, Australia’s Federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry(the equivalent
position of USDA Secretary) says Australia is concerned that as a new round of world agricultural talks approaches, protectionism is actually worse today than when the Uruguay Round was concluded.
The level of farm subsidies in the U.S., in Europe, Japan and Korea is actually higher today than when those countries undertook to reduce their level of farm support, according to Truss.
“Terms like multi-functionality are being used as a guise to provide a new level of protectionism, to provide new support for farmers in a way that was not intended,”
he says. “The reality is in some instances the lawyers have been smarter than the diplomats. They’ve devised new ways of delivering at least the same level of
protection, if not higher levels of protection and remaining within the text of the agreement.”
Truss says Australian farmers look with alarm when they see American farmers now receiving subsidies amounting for perhaps as much as half of their income. In
Japan, it is 60% of their income, and in Europe the number is similar. In Australia, he says about 6% of producer income comes by way of government support, and
nearly all of that goes to the dairy industry, which is now in a process of reform.
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