Europe's trade and farm chiefs will next week urge the United States to match European Union reforms on farm spending to help pave the way for global trade talks later this year, the European Commission said in a statement carried by Reuters on Friday. Europe's trade and agriculture commissioners Peter Mandelson and Mariann Fischer Boel are due to be in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday for talks with U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. Both sides have said they want to find a common agenda for World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Hong Kong in December. "The European side will hope to gain an understanding by the U.S. government of the reforms underway in the Common Agricultural Policy," Mandelson's spokesman Peter Power said. "They will discuss with the American side the scope for comparable changes in U.S. farm policy and spending." Washington has argued that even with reforms, the EU still outspends the United States on agricultural subsidies. --More 2131 Local Time 1831 GMT
