Slim chances for WTO farm deal

Date: 20/07/05

The diplomat chairing the international trade talks on farm products feels there is only a slim chance that his aim of drafting an agreement acceptable to rich and poor countries alike by the end of this month will be realised.

New Zealand's Tim Groser gave his pessimistic assessment to a meeting of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) sub-committee on cotton earlier this week. He is attempting to piece together the broad outline of an accord by next Friday (29 July) so that it could form the basis for a deal at December's WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong.

Sources in the WTO's Geneva headquarters say a draft accord should involve a balanced approach to the three so-called pillars of farm trade: export subsidies, domestic support and market access.

Some progress on market access was achieved at a meeting in Dalian, China, last week. The G20 grouping of developing countries, led by Brazil and India, put forward a new formula on cutting import tariffs on farm goods. Yet though this was widely hailed as constructive, sources indicate there is discord over some aspects of it. Mariann Fischer Boel, the European commissioner for agriculture, has proposed that the reductions should be subject to some degree of flexibility. But the G20 has not accepted this.

Other countries like Switzerland and Japan, meanwhile, have declined to accept the G20's recommendation that there should be an upper limit on tariffs.

Negotiators from both the EU and US have recently voiced a willingness to scrap export subsidies. The Americans, though, voiced reluctance to introduce sharp reductions to domestic subsidies during the Dalian meeting.

Article reports on comments by Tim Groser, the New Zealand diplomat chairing the international trade talks on farm products to the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Sub-committee on Cotton, 18 July 2005. He said he felt there was only a slim chance that his aim of drafting an agreement acceptable to rich and poor countries alike by the end of July 2005 would be realised.

WTO: News items: 'WTO Cotton Sub-Committee: Africans keep up pressure for progress by end of July', 18.7.05 http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news05_e/cotton_18july05_e.htm

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