The European Union pressed the United States to drop export credits on farm goods as five key World Trade Organization members met here for an informal summit

The European Union pressed the United States to drop export credits on farm goods as five key World Trade Organization members met here for an informal summit, hoping for progress toward a new global trade deal. Washington has so far refused to abolish its farm export credits — government loans enabling producers to offer low-risk credit to overseas customers. It has offered instead to cut what it calls the trade-distorting "subsidy elements." "The ball is now in the court of the Americans to say what they're really offering," said Gregor Kreuzhuber, spokesman for EU Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler. "What they've offered so far is not yet good enough." Fischler and his EU trade colleague Pascal Lamy began two days of talks Saturday in the French capital with WTO counterparts including U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim is hosting the meeting, also attended by Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and Australian officials. Efforts to broker a new global trade treaty are almost a year behind schedule but received a boost in May, when the EU said it was ready to drop agricultural export subsidies.