Officials from the United States, European Union and two dozen other countries begin three days of talks today in Montreal, Canada, on agriculture subsidies and tariff reforms.
The meeting is the first chance for the trade ministers to explore what impact EU farm policy reforms could have on the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks - which have made little progress since they began 20 months ago in Doha, Qatar.
Countries need to agree on the broad outlines of an agricultural deal at the WTO's mid-session review in Cancun, Mexico, this September to have any chance of finishing the talks by the goal of January 2005.
However, there are still wide differences in what trade negotiators call the "three pillars" of the agricultural talks - domestic supports, export subsidies and tariffs.
WTO agriculture committee chairman Mr Stuart Harbinson has proposed rich countries cut their most trade-distorting domestic subsidies - a category known as amber box payments - by 60 per cent over five years. He has also proposed a 50-per cent cut in blue box payments, a category of less trade-distorting subsidies used mainly by the EU.
EU officials are optimistic they can meet both of those goals based on their recent reforms. But US farm groups say the Harbinson proposal is unfair.
Meanwhile, the EU is resisting Mr Harbinson's plan for eliminating export subsidies over nine years.