Brussels, 31/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - The easing of tension in regard to the issue of agriculture as observed on the first day of the informal WTO mini-ministerial in Montreal (EUROPE yesterday p 3), was reconfirmed on Wednesday. At the end of the meeting, the Canadian Minister for Trade, Pierre Pettigrew, announced that the USA and the European Union had agreed to develop a common position on access to agricultural markets, the main stumbling block in the negotiations. The US and EU are committed to presenting this common position by mid-August in order to create the conditions for reaching an agreement at the ministerial in Cancun, explained the Minister.
Speaking during the final press conference, the European Commissioner in charge of agriculture, Franz Fischler, stressed that the progress achieved in Montreal confirmed that Europeans and Americans were doing their best to find common ground in a transparent way, "so that the other 144 WTO members do no feel left out.
Our WTO partners have called for leadership, now they get leadership". The Commissioner also declared that, "Backed up by a radical farm reform at home, the EU has jumped from the bandwagon into the driving seat of these farm talks.
This is why yesterday Pascal (Lamy) and I put concrete proposals on the table which proved that Europe is ready to go further, , to move substantially", he added. Franz Fischler also pointed to the content of these proposals. Firstly, a 60% reduction in domestic support for agriculture. In this regard he called on other WTO member countries that subsidise their farmers to match this offer.
The Commissioner also indicated that the EU had proposed to substantially reduce export subsidies and that it was ready to completely eradicate subsidies on certain products, "provided that other forms of export subsidisation, such as export credits, abuse of food aid and State Trading Enterprises are equally disciplined". Mr Fischler confirmed that the EU was ready to reduce its tariffs on imported agricultural products by 36% on average and open up or expand its tariff quotas for certain sensitive products.
The Commissioner described these proposals as "more than respectable" and called on all developed countries to follow the EU example and offer the poorest countries in the world market access free from tariffs and quotas.