The following editorial appeared Tuesday in The Daily News of Longview, Wash.

Congressional leaders are resisting President Bush’s call for a substantial reduction in farm subsidies, according to an Associated Press report. Instead, they’re looking for budget savings in the Agriculture Department’s land conservation and nutrition programs.

That veteran politicians would look first for budget savings in programs serving constituencies with little political clout is not surprising. But it is discouraging to see House and Senate leaders so willing to overlook what’s really at stake here.

The president’s proposed reduction in farm subsidies is not simply about identifying a budget savings. That, in fact, is the lesser benefit. The greater, more lasting benefit comes from the expansion of trade that substantially reducing these agricultural subsidies would allow.

U.S. farm subsidies are the chief obstacle to opening new markets abroad for U.S. exports.

The impact of U.S. farm subsidies on Mexican growers under the North American Free Trade Agreement is the reason Bush’s efforts to create a hemisphere-wide free trade zone are stalled. What the farm subsidies promise to do to Central American farmers could block ratification of the Central America Free Trade Agreement signed by the president in 2003.

This country’s big agricultural subsidies have been deemed in violation of international trade regulations by the World Trade Organization. They defeat the best efforts of growers in poor countries to make a decent living and slow the development of Third World nations, which have little beyond agricultural products to export. The White House has asked Congress to reduce the annual ceiling on payments to farmers from the current $360,000 to $250,000 and eliminate loopholes that allow some big growers to collect several times the maximum annual subsidy.

The president also is asking that all farm payments be cut by 5 percent. That’s not going to bankrupt family farms. To be sure, the lion’s share of this money goes to subsidize multimillion-dollar corporations that need no such help. What approval of Bush’s proposal will do is signal this nation’s willingness to level the playing field in agricultural trade. That’s essential, if the United States is to open new markets for its exports.

And, as reputable economists will tell us, opening those markets is critical to growing the nation’s economy.