While Mr Johanns did not go into details in a speech to an agribusiness lunch, he suggested that the administration would push for a different emphasis in the upcoming farm bill, away from subsidies for selected commodities and towards environmental programmes and income support for smaller farmers.
Such a move could help shield farm programmes from legal challenge in the World Trade Organisation, which has declared some aspects of the US support for its cotton farmers to be illegal.
Domestic subsidies that are not linked to production are harder to challenge and will be subject to fewer cuts under the current Doha round of WTO trade talks.
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