US sugar stance an insult: farmers


The United States' willingness to negotiate sugar tariffs with the Americas was a blatant insult to Australian farmers, an industry chief said.

The US signalled it was willing to discuss reducing US sugar protection with 34 South and Central American countries as part of a proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement.

This was despite the US refusal to include sugar in a free trade deal struck with Australia this week.

The chief US negotiator on the FTAA, Ross Wilson, confirmed sugar would not be excluded from the negotiating table.

"Our position is that all tariffs are subject to negotiation," Mr Wilson told trade lawyers in Washington.

Australian Cane Farmers Association chairman Ross Walker described the US position as an unbelievable double-standard.

"If America starts reducing tariffs with other countries, then it will certainly leave them open to criticism," Mr Walker said.

"They seem to pick and choose the rules to suit them.

"It's a blatant insult to Australian farmers."

Trade Minister Mark Vaile played down the prospect of the US giving any ground on sugar in the new deal.

"We can't read too much into these media remarks," Mr Vaile's spokesman said.

"They don't mean anything until the US shows that it can deliver.

"Historically, they've not been able to do that and they couldn't do that with the free trade agreement (FTA) with Australia."

With cane growers furious at the government's broken promise to include them in the FTA, the government has turned to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to secure them more international market access.

Australia had lodged its first submission to the WTO panel examining a complaint that European Union export subsidies on sugar violated WTO obligations, Mr Vaile announced.

The EU, the world's largest white sugar exporter, spent $2 billion a year on sugar subsidies, he said.

Prime Minister John Howard said it beggared belief that anyone would oppose the FTA.

Mr Walker predicted a number of Queensland sugar mills would close because sugar was excluded from the FTA.

"You could literally be seeing the death of entire communities," he said.

"We could be the first world market to collapse, the situation is that bad."

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Half of a set :halo: