Poland-European Union disagreement on agricultural subsidies and duties

Negotiations between Poland and the European Union (EU) concerning agriculture have run into serious difficulty over the issue of duty on agricultural products and subsidies on food production. At a conference in Warsaw, Franz Fischer EU Agriculture Commissioner and Artur Balazs, Polish Agriculture Minister, presented their official views on the issue. After the conference, Fisher said since the cost of food production and living costs in Poland are much lower than in the rest of Europe it would be difficult to allow Poland to use the EU subsidies for its agricultural products. Balazs said Polish prices for fertilizers and equipment are approaching European ones. He added farmers in the EU use subsidies to produce food they want to sell in Poland duty-free. Although both sides agree the talks will be extremely difficult the negotiations may begin next Tuesday. (Zycie, page 5) J.K.