Brazil
launches WTO complaint against US
Brazil has launched its broadest attack since 2001 to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on US farm spending and farm subsidies.
It has made a formal complaint at the WTO about US trade-distorting agricultural subsidies, gasoline rebates, tax breaks and export credits.
Brazil also has joined in a Canadian complaint that US domestic farm support may have exceeded the $19.1 billion that the WTO rules allow the US to spend on ag supports.
Canada contends that the US has exceeded the maximum spending level over six of the past eight years.
“These claims were unfounded when they were made by Canada, and they are just as unfounded when they are made by Brazil,” Gretchen Hamel, spokeswoman for the US Trade, has responded
Both Canada and Brazil want the US to lower its
spending from the $19.1 billion level, with Brazil calling for a $17 billion offer in recent trade talks.
(Published by The Brazilian, July 13, 2007)