The US on Thursday called on the European Union to expand its mandate for reforming its Common Agricultural Policy, saying that progress in the Doha Round of world trade negotiations would continue to be blocked unless the EU could offer much larger cuts in tariff protection for its farm products.

Rob Portman, the US trade representative, made the comments before flying to Geneva on Thursday night for a meeting of trade ministers from the US, EU, Brazil, India and Japan in advance the Hong Kong ministerial meeting later this month.