Brussels, 30/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - The member countries of the WTO are prepared to look at new ways of taking forward discussions on the agriculture strand of the Doha Round.
In their first meeting since the WTO ministerial conference in December 2011, Doha Round negotiators agreed on 22 March to consider new approaches to break the deadlock on agriculture. The chairman of the agriculture negotiations committee, New Zealand Ambassador John Adank said: “Differences of opinion include which subjects might be agreed ahead of a comprehensive deal.”
Until recently, the talks had focused on 10 particularly difficult remaining issues: product-specific limits (blue box) on domestic subsidies, cotton, sensitive products, tariff cap, tariff quota creation, tariff simplification, special products, special safeguard mechanism, tropical and diversification products, and long-standing preferences and preference erosion.
Adank said negotiators broadly acknowledged that in the current climate, progress on these issues might not be possible. While Australia believes that the chapter on export competition - export subsidies, export credit, food aid and state trading enterprise - is ripe for an early agreement, the EU points out that any export competition commitment remains tied to agreement in all areas in agriculture as well as on geographical indications in intellectual property. Others said that whatever is agreed has to strike a balance between all three “pillars” in the talks (market access, domestic support and export competition). (EH/transl.rt)