Farm subsidies slashed in WTO deal
Rich and poor nations have struck a historic
deal to slash billions of dollars in farm
subsidies, create more open industrial markets and
put troubled global commerce negotiations back on
track.
(August 02, 04)
After five days of wrangling, the World Trade
Organisation's 147 member states formally agreed a
framework on Sunday, laying down guidelines for
the organisation's Doha Round, which has been in
trouble since the acrimonious collapse of a
ministerial conference last September in Cancun,
Mexico.
"Better late than never," WTO spokesman Keith
Rockwell told reporters after the adoption of the
agreement at a late-night session of top-level
trade diplomats at the WTO's headquarters.
"This is a historic moment for this organisation,"
WTO chief Supachai Panitchpakdi told a news
conference.
The hard-won deal on a series of contentious trade
issues, ranging from farm reform to the launch of
negotiations on a new customs code, puts the
stalled Doha Round firmly back on track, officials
and negotiators said.
"This is the beginning of the end for (farm)
subsidies. Export subsidies will be eliminated
first," Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim
said.
Brazil, together with India, leads the G20
developing nation alliance that played a key role
in the failure of last year's talks in Cancun,
where it mounted fierce attacks on the farm
subsidies of rich powers, such as the United
States and the European Union. The G20 says they
deny it world markets.
After an all-night negotiating marathon, key WTO
members, including the United States, the European
Union and Brazil and Japan, on Saturday had agreed
to the elimination of export subsidies at a date
yet to be set, long a key developing country
demand, to limit other subsidies and lower tariff
barriers.
Agreement on the sensitive issue of agriculture
opened the way for a similar understanding in
industrial goods trade and development issues,
areas in which the WTO was seeking a framework
accord to serve as a basis for future more
detailed negotiations as part of the Doha Round.
The World Bank says the round, whose conclusion
could still be years away, could help lift more
than half a billion people out of poverty through
increased trade and boost global growth.
EU Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler, who
has been fiercely criticised by France, the
biggest beneficiary of EU farm subsidies, for
giving away too much, said the EU could "broadly
accept" the farm deal.
A delegate from Mauritius, which has taken a
leading part in the WTO talks on behalf of African
nations, said that the so-called Group of 90
developing countries could also live with the text
even if it did not get everything it wanted.
Failure in Geneva would have risked delaying
further trade liberalisation for years.
The EU, the United States and countries such as
Japan and Switzerland have said they will not
slash the generous subsidies they lavish on their
farmers unless they get greater access to markets
for industrial goods in developing countries.
But the agreement makes clear that the poorest
countries will not be forced to contribute to
market opening in any area, including services.
Courtesy GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters)
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