Brussels, 27/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - The United States have welcomed the decisions taken on Thursday by the Agriculture Council on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), saying that the next critical step for the EU will be to quickly turn the agreement into significant proposals in WTO negotiations.
In a statement co-signed by US secretary of state for agriculture, Ann Veneman, US trade representative Robert Zoellick said the EU's decision to reform the Common Agricultural Policy is a necessary step forward which, we hope, will usefully aid WTO negotiations. The two politicians explain that without new European Union agriculture proposals at the WTO, the world will not be able to fully assess the impact of the CAP reform. They stressed the importance of a new breakthrough in terms of scrapping export subsidies and a substantial cut in national aid (which leads to unfair trade). Echoing these sentiments, Canada's finance minister John Manley described the EU's reform of its CAP on Thursday as inadequate.