Cancun, Sept 14: A new draft text on world trade talks, issued at a WTO conference here, is an "acceptable basis" for discussions, EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy said. "What's on the table is an acceptable basis for us for the discussions, and we intend to work constructively towards reaching consensus on this basis," he told a press conference.
But Lamy also told reporters here that the text, put forward yesterday in a bid to spur momentum toward a new global trade liberalization accord, posed some serious problems for the European Union. "We have big problems, we have medium problems and we have small problems," he said, adding the principal difficulties covered agriculture, cotton subsidies, industrial tariffs and the so-called Singapore issues.
The draft text calls for the elimination of export subsidies on certain farm products deemed by developing countries to be of special importance to their livelihoods. While Brussels is ready to stamp out export subsidies on products of special interest to developing countries, it strongly contests their wider elimination, Lamy stressed.
Calls for reductions on certain types of domestic support for farmers, where currently under WTO rules there are no limits on spending, posed another problem for the EU, he said.
EU agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler said the document "crosses several red lines the European Union has clearly set out. However, it is a basis we are ready to work with, even though it adds serious head ache to the stomach ache we already had". Bureau Report