The Board of Directors of the American Soybean Association (ASA) this week approved a resolution expressing strong support of the Doha World Trade Organization (WTO) Round’s Agriculture Declaration to achieve substantial improvements in market access, the phase-out and elimination of export subsidies, and substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic support. The trade talks were launched in November 2001, in Doha, Qatar.

"ASA is urging U.S. trade negotiators to pursue a comprehensive agreement that will level the playing field for U.S. farmers and ranchers," said ASA President Dwain Ford, a soybean producer from Kinmundy, Ill.

ASA is calling for an agreement that would:

• Substantially improve market access by using a harmonized approach that would cut higher tariffs by a greater amount, thereby resulting in more equitable levels of tariffs worldwide. United States agricultural tariffs average only 12 percent while agricultural tariffs in the rest of the world average 62 percent. The Doha Round must provide greater market access and level the international playing field for U.S. farmers and ranchers.

• Eliminate export subsidies within a transition period.

• Substantially reduce trade-distorting domestic support through a harmonized approach that would require countries to reduce non-exempt, trade-distorting support to a common fixed percentage of the value of their agricultural production. Trade-distorting subsidies to farmers in Europe and some other countries are extremely high relative to their value of agricultural production, and a final Doha agreement must level the playing field for U.S. farmers and ranchers. The ability of the United States to support U.S. agriculture through policies that are not trade distorting must be maintained.

"The prosperity of U.S. soybean growers is tied to continued worldwide income and demand growth that can be spurred by trade liberalization and market access gains," Ford said.