High prices give chance to cut farm subsidies - Ban

High commodity prices create an opportunity for developed nations to scrap agricultural subsidies that distort trade and worsen poverty in the world, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday.

Ban urged rich and poor states attending a U.N. conference on trade and development in Ghana to strike a global trade deal on cutting tariff barriers to ease soaring food prices which have triggered unrest in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The U.N. chief said spiralling inflation, which has more than doubled the prices of staple foodstuffs in many low-income nations, could undermine global efforts to improve the livelihood of the world's one billion poorest people.

"High food prices threaten to undo the gains achieved so far in fighting hunger and malnutrition," he told delegates at the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) meeting in the Ghanaian capital Accra.

"They underscore the importance of pushing for an open trading system in agricultural commodities which would benefit countries around the world," Ban said.

"Today's high commodity prices present a unique opportunity to reduce trade-distorting subsidies and tariffs on agricultural products," he said, urging developed nations to take action.

The United States and the European Union have faced heavy criticism for their reluctance to cut tariffs and subsidies on agricultural goods, like cotton, while pressing poor countries for greater access to their markets for industrial goods.

Africa has 12 percent of the world's population, but less than 3 percent of world trade, much of it in primary materials which create few jobs and little value-added wealth.