Food prices have little impact on WTO farm talks-chair

GENEVA May 20 (Reuters) - Soaring world food prices have had little impact on agriculture negotiations in world trade talks, other than to add an even greater sense of urgency, the chairman of the farm talks said on Tuesday.

New Zealand's ambassador to the World Trade Organisation, Crawford Falconer, who chairs WTO farm talks, said the crisis was encouraging the world community to show it could tackle problems.

"It's not dictating the details of the negotiation in any way and that's not a surprise because the negotiation can't give a short-term answer to that problem," Falconer told a news conference the day after issuing revised negotiating proposals.

"So if you're a policy-maker wanting to deal with the fact that there are people out there starving right now you wouldn't come here first, you'd have to go somewhere else."

Falconer said the farm talks, part of the WTO's Doha round launched in late 2001, which aim to stimulate agriculture trade by cutting tariffs and trade-distorting subsidies, could help deal with the food crisis in the medium term.

But a Doha deal, which WTO members hope to conclude this year, would also demonstrate that countries can make progress in a complex negotiation showing that they can tackle other issues too, he said.

On Tuesday an Indian trade official welcomed the revised and streamlined text on farming in global trade talks but said a text on industrial goods needed more refinement before ministers could meet.

Record prices for many food staples have led to shortages of food and riots in some developing countries, leading the United Nations to warn of unprecedented malnutrition and social unrest, and prompting some countries to limit exports of food.

Falconer said one practical area where the rise in food prices was having an impact on negotiations was in discussions about export credits.

The crisis was encouraging members to be more willing to allow longer repayment periods on export credits granted to developing countries.

Falconer said the rise in food prices had also resulted in a technical change to proposed rules on subsidies, by allowing developing countries to take them into account when calculating levels of support that must be reduced. (Reporting by Jonathan Lynn; Editing by Matthew Jones)