Don’t overlook Europe’s farm policy reforms

Reading your Dec. 12 editorial, “So much for egalite,” I cannot help but wonder whether it is a fair and balanced one. Europe is no fortress, as it’s already the world’s largest agricultural importer. Europe imports 10 times more agricultural products from the southern countries than the United States does. The European Union accounts for 85% of African exports and 45% of Latin American exports. Under the European “Everything but Arms” policy, all other imports to the EU from the least-developed countries are duty- and quota-free.

The recent European agreement on sugar will transform the EU from exporter into importer, to the benefit of developing countries. As European Commissioner Peter Mandelson wrote recently in the New York Times, “we have seen no comparably bold action by any other major WTO member, the United States included.”

Europe has radically overhauled its farm policy, a major reform that some conveniently overlook: Our 2003 Common Agricultural Policy reform now means that 90% of Europe’s payments to farmers no longer distort trade, which is not yet the case for the U.S. With more than five times more farmers than in the U.S., Europe’s average farmer now receives less than half as much as his American equivalent.

These are facts, not flawed assumptions.

JEAN-DAVID LEVITTE

French Ambassador to the U.S.

Washington