Press Release: Trade policy: EU says no final date for ending export subsidies until others sign up to reform

The European Union announced that it was not willing to discuss dates for the elimination of export subsidies, until other countries would sign up to transparent reform to their forms of export subsidies. The European Union had accepted elimination itself in July 2004 on condition that others did the same. Europe’s commitment to eliminating all export subsidies in an unequivocal, transparent way remained absolute. But every form of export support distorts world markets and the the need to act applied to all governments engaged in export subsidisation.

• Primary Source

WTO: The WTO: Ministerial Conferences: The Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference, Hong Kong, China, 13-18 December 2005 http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/minist_e/min05_e/min05_e.htm

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