EU reaches 'bottom line' on farm tariffs

The European Union has offered to reduce average agricultural tariffs by 46%, its steepest ever farm tariff cuts, in a proposal aimed at breaking a deadlock in world trade talks.

The EU said yesterday that it would reduce the highest tariff rates by 60% and eliminate all subsidies for farm exports if trading partners made similar moves at a World Trade Organisation meeting in December. The EU did not give a time frame for the proposed cuts.