ST. LOUIS, June 2, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- In a letter to President George W. Bush Thursday, the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) joined U.S. agriculture groups stating their unwillingness to make concessions regarding domestic support beyond those already proposed by the administration in the Doha Round World Trade Organization (WTO) agriculture negotiations.
The letter, signed by 12 agriculture industry organizations, was in response to European Union (EU) countries in the WTO rejecting the U.S. proposal put forth in October and pushing for even greater cuts in U.S. domestic support.
The groups also urged administration negotiators not to give way to any agreement that does not ensure a net gain for American farmers and ranchers through commitments on market access and other trade-distorting policies by our trading partners.
"We are obviously concerned with the current situation with the European Union countries wanting even deeper cuts to the U.S. domestic support programs," said NCGA President Gerald Tumbleson. "We understand the issue of domestic support is a sensitive issue, but we cannot reduce our domestic support programs any further. NCGA believes it is important to provide expanded market access in order for corn and its coproducts to remain competitive in the global marketplace."
The groups maintain the generous U.S. proposal to reduce domestic support was conditional on commitments for increased market access. According to the letter countries have "pocketed" the U.S. offer and are not prepared to come close to an agreement on increasing market access in both developed and developing countries.
The letter also makes clear the agriculture industry will not support a more scaled-back proposal, citing that the countries involved are pushing U.S. negotiators to make even greater concessions.
The groups also stated that any agreement must result in maintaining a high level of ambition and the increased market access important to the American producer.
"If negotiators are forced to scale back the level of ambition from the U.S. proposal on agricultural market access in order to reach an agreement, the level of ambition in cutting trade-distorting domestic support must be commensurately reduced from the U.S. proposal," the letter said.
The National Corn Growers Association mission is to create and increase opportunities for corn growers. NCGA represents nearly 33,000 members, 46 affiliated state corn grower organizations and hundreds of thousands of growers who contribute to state checkoff programs.