Federal Trade Minister Simon Crean and Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Tony Burke have welcomed the decision by the European Union (EU) to end dairy export subsidies. The EU introduced diary export subsidies in January this year and this was followed by the United States in May. The US Dairy Export Incentive Program remains in place. The ministers said the decision was good news for Australian diary producers and another sign that protectionist measures were being wound back. Mr... ...Read more »

The Federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Tony Burke, has told of the government’s bitter disappointment with the United States’ decision this week to extend its dairy export subsidies by another year.Mr Burke is currently in Washington for three days to promote agricultural trade. He is due to meet US Trade Representative Ron Kirk today and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack tomorrow, with the US Dairy Export Incentive Program one of the key issues on Australia’s... ...Read more »

The re-introduction of dairy subsidies in the US has been met with disappointment in Australia, as concerns grow that protectionism could have a negative impact on food security. “The US announcement at the weekend that it will follow the European Union’s (EU’s) misguided re-introduction of subsidies for dairy producers only compounds the garbled signals affecting world markets and derails legitimate attempts to correct the global economic recession,” National Farmers’... ...Read more »

Warren Truss, the Leader of The Nationals and Shadow Trade Minister, has called on Trade Minister Simon Crean to step in amid claims the threat of a full-blown trade war between the European Union and the United States over dairy exports could negatively impact the dairy sector in Australia. “The likely subsidy war over dairy could devastate Australian exports and begin an outbreak of widespread trade protectionism in response to global economic turmoil,” Mr Truss said. “The G20... ...Read more »

The US Congress has passed a $290 billion farm bill, which will increase subsidies to US farmers and cut international aid programs. George Bush has threatened to veto the bill, however, but there is still a good chance it will be passed into law. Interestingly, the presidential candidates response to the bill were contrasting with John McCain critical, Hilary Clinton supportive and Barack Obama labelling it as “far from perfect”. According to an Associated Press tally less than... ...Read more »