WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States is prepared to negotiate a multilateral trade deal on the basis of a WTO proposal calling for big cuts in agriculture subsidies, a government official said Wednesday.
But a spokeswoman for the office of the US Trade Representative, Sean Spicer, said other countries "must step up to ensure the strongest possible market access outcomes" in agriculture as well as manufacturing and services.
The comments in Washington came after a high-ranking WTO official said in Geneva that US officials had accepted WTO proposals as a basis for negotiations.
"They said they were prepared to negotiate within the range of numbers put forward in the agriculture paper, provided everybody else would work within the same parameters," said the WTO's chief agriculture negotiator, New Zealand ambassador Crawford Falconer.
In July, Falconer published a series of proposals for WTO members which suggested that the United States reduce its agricultural subsidies to between 12.8 to 16.2 billion dollars (9.2 to 11.6 billion euros).
Washington had previously refused to cut its farm support to below 23 billion dollars.
The proposals from Falconer aim to unblock stalled global talks on a new trade agreement, known as the Doha trade talks.
In Washington, Spicer said Washington made its intentions known at the recent summit of APEC Asia-Pacific Cooperation members.
"The US is committed to a balanced and ambitious outcome," he said in a statement.
"We made it clear at APEC that we are prepared to negotiate on the basis of the current agriculture and industrial good texts in Geneva. The US will lead but others must step up to ensure the strongest possible market access outcomes implied by the texts in agriculture, manufacturing and in the services negotiations."
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