EU urged to offer better agriculture deal at global trade talks

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Prime Minister Helen Clark has urged the European Union to reconsider its latest world trade talks offer on agriculture, saying the offer would do little to end the deadlock and improve the plight of poor nations, the Associated Press (AP) has reported.

Speaking to EU lawmakers at the European Parliament, Helen Clark said that unless the EU proposed better market access, she believed no progress would be possible at next month's World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Hong Kong.

"The European Union's offer on market access in agriculture will have to improve to unblock negotiations, and it will be difficult to get further movement on non-agricultural market access for services unless the EU has the flexibility to move on market access in agriculture," AP reported her as saying.

The PM said the 25-nation bloc's offer to cut its highest agricultural tariff rates by 60 per cent and its average tariffs by 46 per cent would do little to appease other top farm exporters, such as the United States, Brazil and Australia.

"There is not a great deal in it for agriculture exporters like New Zealand," she said.

Helen Clark, on a two-day visit to Brussels, also visited Nato headquarters to discuss New Zealand's continuing participation in peacekeeping in Afghanistan.

She is also due to hold talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Tuesday, according to the AP report.