Brazilian farmers hit out at lack of agreement at trade talks

REPRESENTATIVES of Brazil’s huge farm and biofuel sectors said they were badly hurt by last week’s failure to reach a world trade agreement.

“The initial impact is $5 billion that Brazil won’t be exporting annually, and there will be other impacts that we can’t measure, like trade distortions that rich countries can continue to use indiscriminately,” said Matheus Zanella of the National Agriculture Confederation.

Australian National Farmers’ Federation president David Crombie said their hopes of better access to beef markets in Japan and South Korea had been dashed, while the lucrative sheep meat market in Europe would remain elusive.