São Paulo - Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, says that it is possible that Europe will cut its farm subsidies beginning in 2010. However, Amorim adds that it is impossible to predict an exact date, but the end of the subsidies is seen as inevitable even by Europeans. The minister was commenting on an agreement signed on Saturday by the 147 members of the World Trade Organization to end farm subsidies. The agreement does not set a date for the subsidies to end.

Amorim says that there will be gains before the agreement goes into effect because economic players will take it into consideration immediately. "What that means is that if you are thinking about putting your money in sugar or beets, for example, you know that within six years the subsidies on those products will no longer exist. And that will probably make you invest in something else," said the minister.

Agência Brasil
Reporter: Mylena Fiori
Translator: Allen Bennett
08/05/2004