U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman on Monday said the United States was prepared to make significant cuts to domestic farm subsidies by 2010 if other countries took similar steps, according to DPA. "We are ready to make meaningful changes to American farm programmes provided our trading partners deliver tangible market access for U.S. agricultural exports and our offer is also met by substantial reductions in trade-distorting measures, with deeper cuts by the biggest subsidizers," Portman said in a statement released in Washington. The two-stage plan would reduce some domestic farm subsidies by 60 per cent over five years. It also would eliminate export subsidies by 2010. Portman, who was to meet with his international counterparts in Switzerland this week, initially outlined the plan in an opinion piece published Monday in the Financial Times.
