The head of the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation, back from a week of trade talks in Geneva, said trade negotiators may be running out of time to get their discussions back on track given the political season in the United States.

The so-called Doha Round of trade talks already has been delayed by about two years as various countries and interest groups fought over such diverse subjects as liberalizing agricultural trade, protecting intellectual property rights for new genetics, protecting labor and the environment, and over what issues are to be discussed or omitted in the next negotiations.

"If there isn't an agreement on an agenda by the first of July, there probably isn't much the world community can do until at least the third quarter of next year," said Al Christopherson, the state Farm Bureau president.

Regardless who wins the presidential election this fall, he said, changes are likely in the U.S. Trade Representative's Office and in other key government posts where U.S. policy is shaped.

Trade talks did get a nudge forward over the past weekend, however, when officials of the European Union announced they are willing to discuss an international agreement ending all national export subsidies.

Christopherson, American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman and staff executives of the national farm group met Monday through Friday in Geneva last week with counterpart farm organizations and trade ambassadors from Japan, South America and Europe. Third World countries and major agricultural exporters have pushed for eliminating export subsidies because they distort trade.

While Europe has resisted liberalizing farm trade in past trade rounds, the new pledge to negotiate an end to export subsidies is a step forward in getting all contentious trade issues on the table, Christopherson said.

In Washington on Monday, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick praised the European Union for backing an emerging consensus of trade negotiations. "In a sense we're trying to get back to where we all hoped to be last September at the Cancun Ministerial," he said, referring to trade talks in Mexico that stalled over agricultural trade and labor issues.

Christopherson and Nebraska Farmers Union President John Hansen were among farm organization leaders testifying Tuesday before a Senate panel in support of funding for conservation programs.

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