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WTO members remain apart in farm talks |
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Posted by Truth About Trade & Technology
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Thursday, 20 November 2008 |
Stuff.co (New Zealand)
There are still big differences between World Trade Organisation members on important farm trade issues and time is running out for them to reach an outline agreement this year, New Zealand's WTO ambassador has said.
Crawford Falconer, also the farm talks mediator, expressed concern that negotiators would not be able to narrow the gaps in time for ministers to meet next month and try to break the deadlock in the seven-year-old Doha round.
The G20 summit of rich and emerging countries called at the weekend for the outlines of a Doha deal to be agreed by the end of the year, and that would require a ministerial meeting.
Ministers will not meet until there is agreement in Doha's core areas of agriculture and industrial goods, cutting farm subsidies and industrial and agricultural tariffs.
Falconer said there had been work, but no real progress, on the issues on which ministerial talks broke down in July. New ideas had emerged on the special safeguard mechanism – a measure to protect subsistence farmers from a surge in imports.
"I've seen some moderation of people's positions of a relatively minor nature on the stuff that matters. I've also seen them go backwards on some issues as well," he said.
"None of those changes for what I would call the positive. . . have been of such material significance that it would make a different basis upon which you could proceed textually," he told reporters after a meeting of the WTO's 153 members to review progress in the farm talks.
Falconer said he had invited members of the G20 countries on Monday to say how they would now show flexibility to move the negotiations forward, following the summit's call.
"I heard not a word," he said.
He said he would call another meeting on Friday and ask the same question.
Falconer also expressed concern about the timetable. As members were not willing to work on the main issues this week, all substantive movement would have to take place next week, to allow him to revise his negotiating text in time for ministers to meet in December, he said.
THE MAJOR ISSUES
The special safeguard mechanism: Falconer said disagreements had widened from exporters' concerns about the possibility of raising tariffs above agreed ceilings to the impact of raising duties within agreed limits;
Sensitive products: A measures allowing mainly rich countries to shield sensitive farm sectors from tariff cuts. Falconer said even the most directly involved countries did not agree on the complex numbers underlying the proposals;
Tariff quota creation: Effectively this means allowing additional products to be treated as sensitive. Importers and exporters differ over whether this should be allowed.
Tariff peaks: There was still no agreement on whether some countries with highly protected farm sectors would be allowed to retain agricultural tariffs above 100 per cent, or how many.
Special safeguard: Similar to the proposed special safeguard mechanism for developing countries, this safeguard mainly for rich countries is to be phased out, but there is no agreement on how or when.
Tariff simplification: Disagreement between exporters and importers about whether or how "specific" tariffs (eg: so many dollars per tonne) should be changed to the more widespread "ad valorem" tariffs (percentage of value).
Cotton: US cotton subsidies are a touchstone for developing countries of the willingness of rich nations to remove distortions from farm trade. The United States has so far not indicated what it is prepared to do.
Falconer said these issues were so important that a proposal to resolve one could lead countries to change their positions on others, unravelling progress already made.
"It's not as if you've got one or two marginal issues and you've just got to fix these footnotes and everything else is in place. it's not at that stage and never has been," he said.
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