Brazil Says EU Must Open Agro-Markets
Brazil has urged the European Union to create an effective opening in the agricultural market, the driving force of the crucial Doha Round of World Trade Organization negotiations.

Brazil´s Foreign Ministry made public a letter sent by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to the presidents of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, and to chairman of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso.

In his letter, Lula warns that with the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong looming, agriculture negotiations "face the prospect of a likely standstill."

It recalls that this month the US offered a reduction in farm subsidies that "despite failing to meet our demands of a substantial reduction, urged agriculture-oriented G-20 underdeveloped members to make ambitious proposals.

"The G-20 basically proposes that developed and underdeveloped countries alike take a step further from the previous round in terms of market opening," the letter adds.

"We look forward to the EU presentation, even this week, its contribution to market access," it says.

A real opening of markets by the EU would encourage other countries, mainly the US, to "make additional moves we consider indispensable in internal subsidies," Lula"s letter says.