US pressure on China on agricultural export subsidies

Lead: Geneva, June 19 (Reuters) - the United States has conveyed to China its concern that China may continue to provide agricultural export subsidies in violation of its commitments to the world trade organization, U.S officials said on Wednesday In the global trade negotiations held last year, China and the United States held a bilateral meeting in a round of WTO dialogue to discuss further increasing the level of free trade in agricultural products, which is an important part of the global trade negotiations Trade officials said the bilateral meeting between China and the United States held at the WTO headquarters in Geneva had not made effective progress, and both sides stressed their respective positions Alan Johnson, the chief agricultural negotiator of the United States, told reporters that the United States has seen some industry figures' reports on China's export subsidies for agricultural products, and therefore has made representations to China Washington is particularly concerned about reports that China is selling about 3 million tons of corn to Southeast Asia at a lower cost, US trade officials said China just joined the WTO with 144 members at the beginning of this year and promised not to provide subsidies to farmers on agricultural exports Johnson said he also raised the so-called tariff rate quota issue with China, under which China should import a certain amount of agricultural products at a lower tax rate He said the U.S is unhappy with China's actions and has yet to see China import more agricultural products as they expect He added: 'we need to confirm that China will allocate quotas, manage them in accordance with its commitments to the WTO, and have actual trade practices under the quota system The three-day WTO agricultural dialogue focused on the export of agricultural products, including subsidies, export credit and food aid Most WTO members want a deadline for the complete elimination of export subsidies, but the EU refuses to set any detailed timetable unless other countries have detailed export subsidy loans and food aid plans Brussels wants to ensure that the new final agreement on agricultural trade makes clear that cash aid should have priority over food aid, EU negotiators said in a press release He explicitly criticized the United States for providing food aid to other countries in the form of loans, which would force the receiving countries to buy food from the donor countries Other WTO members have asked the EU to set a detailed timetable for the issue of agricultural products, but have not received any information on how long it will take for negotiations between EU members to begin He said the European Union is asking other countries to take action in agricultural trade, but it is indifferent But Johnson said the subsidy for export loans meant the component was much smaller than the EU's direct export subsidy.