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European farm ministers have ended three weeks of negotiations with a deal which they claim represents genuine reform of the common agricultural policyCAP). Will it be enough to kickstart theDoha world trade negotiations?
On the face of it, the deal agreed in the early hours of Thursday June 26th looks promising. Most subsidies linked to specific farm products are, at last, to be broken—the idea is to replace these with a direct payment to farmers, unconnected to particular products. Support prices for several key products, including milk and butter, are to be cut—that should meanEuropean prices eventually falling towards the world market level.Cutting the link between subsidy and production was the main objective of proposals put forward by Mr Fischler, which had formed the starting point for the negotiations.
TheCAP is hugely unpopular around the worl
D、It subsidisesEuropean farmers to such an extent that they can undercut farmers from poor countries, who also face trade barriers that largely exclude them from the potentially lucrativeEuropean market. Farm trade is also a key feature of theDoha round of trade talks, launched under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in November 2001.Developing countries have lined up alongside a number of industrial countries to demand an end to the massive subsidiesEurope pays its farmers. SeveralDoha deadlines have already been missed because of theEU’s intransigence, and the survival of the talks will be at risk if no progress is made by September, when the world's trade ministers meet inCancùn, Mexico.
But now even the French seem to have gone along with the deal hammered out in Luxembourg. Up to a point, anyway. The package of measures gives the green light for the most eager reformers to move fast to implement the changes within their own countries.But there is an escape clause of sorts for the French and other reform-averse nations. They can delay implementation for up to two years. There is also a suggestion that the reforms might not apply where there is a chance that they would lead to a reduction in land under cultivation.
These let-outs are potentially damaging forEurope’s negotiators in theDoha roun
D、They could significantly reduce the cost savings that the reforms might otherwise generate and, in turn, keepEuropean expenditure on farm support unacceptably high by world standards. More generally, the escape clauses could undermine the reforms by encouraging the suspicion that the new package will not deliver the changes that its supporters claim.Close analysis of what is inevitably a very complicated package might confirm the sceptics' fears.
31. The deal agreed on Thursday looks promising in that _____.
[A]European farm ministers finally reached a consensus
[B] the link between farm products and subsidies is removed
[C] farmers would definitely accept the direct payment to them
[D]European farm products will reach a lower price level than the world
32. It can be inferred from the third paragraph that ____.
[A] farmers from poor countries were put at a disadvantage byCAP
[B] the deal will be a key subject of debate inDoha round of trade talks
[C] the deal was probably a result of pressure from other countries
[D] the world’s trade ministers will resist the new deal reached recently
33. In what case might the escape clauses apply in reform-averse nations ?
[A] Farmers lose their interest in farming.
[B] Reforms have to be delayed for up to two years.
[C] Implementation of the measures goes too eagerly.
[D] The measures damage the reformers’ confidence.
34. The new package of measures is inevitably a complicated one due to ____.
[A]Europe’s negotiators’ loss of confidence
[B]European expenditure on farm support
[C] escape clauses for someEuropean countries
[D] suspicion of the new package
35. What is the passage mainly about ?
[A] a promising new deal
[B]Doha world trade negotiations
[C] world’s anger againstEurope
[D] doomed reforms ofCAP