Sarkozy anti-WTO remarks seen as contradictory

By Laura MacInnis

GENEVA (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy's pointed criticism of the Doha free trade round were contradictory and did poor-country farmers a disservice, trade experts said on Monday.

Sarkozy, a staunch defender of European Union farm subsidies that would be cut under a new World Trade Organisation (WTO) accord, called the deal being negotiated in Geneva "really counterproductive" in light of the world's food security crisis.

"One child dies every 30 seconds because they are hungry, and we should go and negotiate within the WTO framework a 20 percent cut in European agricultural production?," he asked in remarks directed at EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.

Several experts questioned the basis of Sarkozy's 20 percent figure, given that farming production levels are not explicitly discussed in the Doha round of talks over opening up worldwide agriculture, manufacturing and services markets.

The range of farm subsidy and tariff cuts being considered in Geneva remains wide, and is not expected to be fixed until ministers meet to broker sensitive trade-offs. French officials declined to comment how the farm output figure had been reached.

London School of Economics professor Razeen Sally said that Europe would see "not a very significant reduction in production in the short-term" from a WTO deal that opened up farm markets and created new opportunities for food exporters in developing countries such as Brazil and Argentina.

Cuts to the subsidies that give wealthy farmers an edge in international markets would encourage poorer producers to grow more food and feed more of the hungry, Sally said.

"President Sarkozy has got his logic the wrong way around ... Reinforcing protection in Europe and presumably allowing Europe to dump its produce on foreign markets is not the solution to rural poverty in the developing world."