EmailPeter Mandelson believes that the current high prices for commodities such as milk, wheat and other crops, will serve to allay fears in richer farming nations over open trade agreements, in an interview with the Reuters news agency.
Up until now, food and beverage manufacturers have generally been battling to improve margins against, though the claims could signify a change in objections to removing trade barriers as outlined in the Doha round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks.
"I think the consequences are that the arguments in favour of border protection and market price support are not what they were when we started out on the long Doha journey in 2001," Mandelson was quoted as saying in the report.
The Doha trade round, which aims to free global trade by cutting industrial and agricultural tariffs and by reducing farm subsidies, has repeatedly stalled as developed and developing countries have failed to find consensus.
Mandelson added that current high prices for farmers would make negotiations with nations like the US, who had previously held back elements of the talks, easier to accept.
Reuters said that the claims were made after negotiations with Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean, and follow agreements made by several ministers of trade powers over the weekend to that a WTO negotiating session around Easter should go ahead.
The proposals form part of the ongoing Doha Development Agenda, launched in November 2001 in the Qatari capital, which give the tlaks their name. The agenda was designed to free up global trade, with a particular focus on achieving concrete benefits for developing countries.
The final round of talks were suspended last July, as WTO members refused to budge on certain issues.
The issues that remain on the table - and have indeed been there for some time - concern agricultural subsidies, agricultural tariffs, industrial tariffs, services, and market openings.