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Battle lines form in WTO farm trade struggle
Battle lines formed Saturday in what is set to be a titanic struggle at the World Trade Organisation conference in Qatar over the future pace and direction of farm trade liberalisation.
Battle lines formed Saturday in what is set to be a titanic struggle at the World Trade Organisation conference in Qatar over the future pace and direction of farm trade liberalisation.
Finding a compromise on agriculture is one of the most difficult obstacles ministers must overcome if they are to agree to launch a new round of global trade talks at the conference, which ends on Tuesday.
At an initial meeting of a WTO working group set up to discuss the issue, none of the countries that are at loggerheads over it showed signs of giving way, a trade official said.
Singapore trade minister George Yeo has been put in charge of trying to broker a compromise on the thorny issue -- a role he also took on at the WTO's last, and ill-fated, summit in Seattle in 1999 which collapsed partly over agriculture. Drawn up on one side of the debate are countries such as the United States and the Cairns group of major food exporters, including Australia, Brazil and Canada, which are demanding a commitment to work for the abolition of farm export subsidies.
On the other is the European Union, which says it is willing to talk about reducing export subsidies but will not commit to eliminating them.
A group of developing countries, including Pakistan, wants a package of exemptions from WTO rules in a ''development box'' designed to allow developing country governments to protect their poorest farmers. The EU, Japan, Switzerland and 37 other countries formed a joint front to press their case that the agriculture talks could not focus on trade aspects alone.
Bureau Report
At an initial meeting of a WTO working group set up to discuss the issue, none of the countries that are at loggerheads over it showed signs of giving way, a trade official said.
Singapore trade minister George Yeo has been put in charge of trying to broker a compromise on the thorny issue -- a role he also took on at the WTO's last, and ill-fated, summit in Seattle in 1999 which collapsed partly over agriculture. Drawn up on one side of the debate are countries such as the United States and the Cairns group of major food exporters, including Australia, Brazil and Canada, which are demanding a commitment to work for the abolition of farm export subsidies.
On the other is the European Union, which says it is willing to talk about reducing export subsidies but will not commit to eliminating them.
A group of developing countries, including Pakistan, wants a package of exemptions from WTO rules in a ''development box'' designed to allow developing country governments to protect their poorest farmers. The EU, Japan, Switzerland and 37 other countries formed a joint front to press their case that the agriculture talks could not focus on trade aspects alone.
Bureau Report