Developing countries welcome WTO proposal on farm trade

Geneva: Developing countries on Saturday welcomed WTO proposals to reduce barriers to farm trade but voiced reservations on those calling for a further opening of their own markets for industrial goods.

The draft agreement on agriculture presented by the World Trade Organisation a week ago “is a good basis for further work,” said Brazilian ambassador Clodoaldo Hugueney, speaking for the Group of 20 emerging market nations.

“These positions offer the best prospects for a balanced and reasonable outcome for the Doha Development Agenda.”

The Doha round of multilateral trade liberalisation talks was launched in the Qatari capital Doha in November 2001 but has foundered ever since in disputes between developing and industrialised nations.

Developing countries have been pressing for greater access to agricultural markets in the industrialised world. Developed nations are in return seeking a better deal for their manufactured products on developing country markets.

Hugueney hailed the WTO’s inclusion in its proposal of an average minimum reduction of 54 percent in customs duties levelled on developing country agricultral exports by industrialised nations.

The G20, which besides Brazil includes such emerging powerhouses as China and India, had put forward the same proposal.

But emerging market countries were less enthusiastic about the WTO draft on manufactured goods, which “largely ignored their proposals,” Hugueney told AFP.

“It sparked a negative reaction.”

This WTO text calls on about 30 emerging countries to set a 23 percent maximum level on their customs duties on industrial products. But the document also drops any reference to the number of products a country would be entitled to protect from too sharp a delcine in customs duties.

“That gave the impression of being a step backward,” Hugueney said.

The WTO plans to convene a ministerial meeting in April aimed at forging a North-South consensus on trade in farm and manufactured goods with the hope of wrapping up the Doha talks by the end of the year.

EU response

The European Commission meanwhile gave a cool reception to the new Doha Round negotiating texts from the WTO, urging a better balance. “All parts of this negotiation must move forward in concert, goods, agriculture and services,” a statement from the commission’s trade office said.

“It is absolutely crucial that the texts now move forward rapidly and in a way that reflects the mainstream views of the WTO membership,” it added.

“The EU believes that the necessary balance between the (industry and service) and agri texts has not been found,” the commission said.

“The EU calls on WTO members to work together to deliver (negotiating) modalities that respect both the sensitivity of developing countries and the Doha mandate of generating real and new market access in non-agricultural products,” the commission said.