WB urges US to cut farm subsidies

SINGAPORE: World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz urged the United States Tuesday to cut agricultural subsidies and better the lives of third world farmers as the IMF warned of growing protectionist sentiment.

"With the Doha Round (of trade liberalisation talks) hanging in the balance, we must consider new ideas and accept that every party in this deal needs to compromise," Wolfowitz told the opening of the World Bank-IMF annual meeting.

"The United States needs to accept further cuts in spending on trade-distorting agricultural subsidies. The European Union needs to reduce barriers to market access". he said.

"And developing countries such as China, India and Brazil need to cut their tariffs on manufactures," said Wolfowitz, a key architect of the foreign policy of president George W. Bush's administration.

The former deputy secretary of Defense on Monday had received a rebuke from member nations of the World Bank who told him in effect to stay focused on poverty as he pursues a tough campaign to stamp out corruption.

The WTO-sponsored talks, launched in the Qatari capital Doha in November 2001, were suspended in July amid deep disagreement on steps to end support for agriculture in the developed world, and demands that emerging and developing countries make their markets more accessible to industrial goods.