The assistant director of IBEC's Food and Drink Federation, Pat Ivory, says the EU should enter the World Trade Organisation agriculture negotiations with renewed confidence.
He told an international dairy foods conference in Miami that the EU was stabilising its spending on agriculture, while the US had dramatically increased its support in recent years.
Mr Ivory said that last year the US distributed a record $28 billion in direct payments, accounting for half of all the money made by farmers.
