Brazil says U.S. needs to go further on farm aid

GENEVA: An offer by the United States to lower the ceiling on its trade-distorting farm subsidies to $15 billion is too high and must be brought down further to unblock global trade talks, a Brazilian diplomat said on Tuesday. "This is only the second day of the talks here so we imagine there is room for manoeuvre to reduce them further," the diplomat said on the second day of a week of negotiations at the World Trade Organisation to rescue a global trade deal.

Brazil wants the United States to go to the bottom of a range of between $13 billion and $16.4 billion for its farm subsidies, as proposed by WTO mediators, the diplomat said. Earlier U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab announced the offer, conditional on improved market access from U.S. trading partners, in order to kickstart the WTO negotiations.