Bush wants EU, U.S. to get rid of agricultural subsidies together

U.S. President George W. Bush always manages to attract attention of the press at world leaders' summits. Yesterday Mr. Bush collided with a British police officer during a bike ride at the Gleneagles resort in central Scotland, where a G8 summit is taking place. It is noteworthy that even without President Bush the police in Scotland has a lot to do. Today Mr. Bush seems to have forgotten about the bike accident: he urged that European Union and the United States should work together to get rid of agricultural subsidies.

"It is very important for the world to hear very clearly the position of the United States," Bush said after a breakfast meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair ahead of the first talks between world leaders at the G8 summit, says the AP.

"We want to work with the EU to rid our respective countries of agricultural subsidies. The best place to do that is the Doha round," he said, referring to the round of trade talks that began in the Qatari capital in 2001. "I would hope that by 2010 the Doha round will achieve that objective."

Blair has been pressing the EU to cut its massive agricultural subsidies and has said he will urge G8 leaders at the summit to do the same.

The subject was one of the main issues in a head-on dispute between France and Britain at a recent EU summit, where Blair sought reform on subsidies, of which France is a big beneficiary.

At the present summit the global climate change on the whole and the Kyoto Protocol in particular, are expected to become one of the central subjects of the international discussion.

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