We look with great hope toward these negotiations, which will be launched in November in the United States. If one major exporter uses export subsidies, others have no choice but to respond in kind. With budget cutbacks and limited resources, no country can afford this kind of policy. Using subsidies to export high-priced products to other countries harkens back to an era when countries could boldly declare that they were willing to put other farmers elsewhere out of business. Agricultural tariffs worldwide still average about 50 percent.
High tariffs encourage inefficient producers and drive up consumer prices.
They don't contribute anything to world food security. Rules on domestic subsidies need to be tightened. Generous subsidy programs that encourage farmers to produce as much as possible without regard to efficiency or environmental costs can only be sustained by keeping out the competition and having the luxury of dumping surplus production on world markets. Of course, countries need to be able to encourage development in agriculture and take the appropriate steps to safeguard rural communities that are such an important part of our heritage and our national values. State trading enterprises should be reformed.