Rich countries' farm subsidies will be vulnerable to an onslaught of litigation if they are not reformed in the current Doha round of world trade talks, according to analysis published today by the development campaign group Oxfam.

In a report co-written with a firm of trade lawyers who asked not to be named, Oxfam argues that the successful cases brought by Brazil against US cotton subsidies and against the European Union sugar regime have forced reform and created precedents that could be exploited across a range of farm products.