Brussels/Paris, 16/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, despite American objections, the thirty member countries of the OECD openly condemned the "use of protectionism" and promised to "work towards resolving the tensions in the steel sector, which have been at the root of the problems in the multilateral trade system", following the annual Ministerial meeting of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Europe. "Grave concerns where expressed about a return to protectionism in the last few months", stated the Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, who chaired the meeting, inferring that vigorous protestations had arisen around the table against the American tendency to fold back on itself, illustrated by the near closure of its steel market and the deployment of an extra 70% support to the agricultural sector (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.8). The new shape of the "Farm Bill" was more openly denounced by the 18 exporting power of the Cairns group (Australia, Canada, Latin America and Asia), who talk, in a joint press release, of a threat to the global economy and against the future multilateral negotiations on the Development Agenda in Doha. "The sheer size of this package will hurt farmers round the world" and its "impact will be particularly damaging on developing countries, net food exports and importers alike". The Director General of the WTO also joined the protestations, while reiterating his call for an amicable solution to trade disputes. Mike Moore sees "storm clouds on the economic horizon" and fears "the proliferation of disputes". We need your visible involvement in the negotiations (…), now, he said, while adding, a little more directly: We need a reassurance from the main powers that the issues which are presently raised will not drain our works. Despite this, the United States stood ground on their legalistic position: "I think there is a little hypocrisy in arguing that our subsidies are a problem" and I will simply keep myself to calling on the Europeans to abandon their protectionism and look at their own policies, which constitute the true problem, stated Andrew Natsios from the American International Development Agency, one of the members of the American delegation lead by the Under Secretary for Trade Peter Allgeier and the White House economic advisor Glenn Hubbard.