A 10-country alliance of food importing nations, led by Switzerland, warned the big trading powers against trying to cook a deal on farm trade reform without taking full account of their views.
On the second day of talks at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the so-called G10 alliance said much of the negotiating was being done by the United States and the European Union, with many of the Geneva-based body's 148-member states in the dark.
"The G10 will not swallow a piece of paper that is not the result of our active participation," Switzerland's chief negotiator Luzius Wasescha told journalists. He said that the group, which also includes Japan, South Korea, Israel and Bulgaria, all of which protect their farmers with high import tariffs, also felt that too much emphasis was being put on agriculture in the WTO's free trade negotiations.
WTO states are racing to conclude preliminary accords on lowering trade barriers in several key areas, including farm and industrial goods, by the end of July.
Although reaching a deal on agriculture, the most politically sensitive area of trade diplomacy, is generally seen as crucial, the group said that negotiations in the other areas were in danger of falling too far behind.
Chief mediator in the farm talks, New Zealand's ambassador to the WTO Tim Groser, might not come up with firm proposals on farm goods until the middle of next month, leaving little time for deals on industrial goods and services by the end-July deadline, Mr Wasescha said.
"Without something palpable (in those areas), you cannot sell such a package," said Mr Wasescha.
The latest round of WTO farm talks, which ended yesterday, focused on the three key areas, or pillars, of farm trade policy - domestic support, export competition and market access, or tariff barriers.
The EU has said it is ready to scrap its direct export subsidies, long the most controversial form of support to farmers, but it is demanding in return that the US virtually dismantle its system of export credits.
It also wants countries with state concerns that operate as monopolies for some farm exports, such as Canada and Australia, to get rid of them as well.
In the area of domestic support, G10 rejects the fixing of upper limits, or caps, for any particular product, as farm exporting countries such as Brazil and Australia demand.
It also opposes calls for those countries wanting to keep high barriers for certain products - and Japan's rice import tariffs can top 500 per cent - to grant greater import quotas to exporting countries.