Brussels / Cancun, 10/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - Without waiting for the Cancun conference to start on Wednesday, the 146 countries belonging to the World Trade Organisation demonstrated the extent of their differences by publicly plunging into a polemic on the text that is to serve as a point of departure in their discussions on agriculture. At the same time, the director general of the institution, Supachaï Panichpakdi from Thailand, who was to give one of the opening speeches at the end of the afternoon, launched a call for order.
"Failure is not an option", Mr Panichpakdi insisted when taking part the day before in several meetings with the representatives of the civil society. "The fragile world economy has a pressing need to be fostered and this can be brought about through new substantial liberalisation of world trade. It is therefore vital that these talks are successful to launch the world economy", he said, warning that the contrary would be a very prejudicial sign carried throughout the world concerning the prospects of economic recovery. This would entail more difficulties for the workers of the whole world, mainly in the poorest countries, he added.
The group of 21 countries, mainly developing countries, headed by Brazil, India and China - the G-21 - had already set the tone. "If there is no progress on agriculture, there is no progress on Doha and there will be no progress in Cancun", warned the Brazilian Minister for Agriculture, Roberto Rodrigues, who discussed the matter a little earlier with the 16 other Cairns partners, including Australia, all on the same offensive wavelength, but with major differences. Thus his Canadian counterpart specified he only aimed at the elimination of all forms of export subsidies, whereas the Australian Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, declared that the Cairns Group will not sacrifice the Doha ambitions simply to obtain a rapid compromise which would not take "our ambitions" into account. The same was true on the Chinese side, whose Agriculture Minister Du Qinglin warned that the conference would only be a success if the needs of developing countries are fully taken into consideration. Also, perhaps galvanised by the many anti-subsidy opinions expressed, the 21 were back at the front with their own farm proposal, just before the opening of the ministerial conference, by formally rejecting the project that the WTO officials had already forwarded to the summit. This draft final declaration, endorsed by Messr Panichpakdi and Perez del Castillo, who headed the preparatory work, gives too much advantage to European and American interests, they said, demanding that their draft, geared to ending protections and farm subsidies by rich countries, should also be taken into consideration in ministerial talks.
European Commissioner Pascal Lamy replied during the opening session that everything should be done to avoid recreating the atmosphere of North-South confrontation which prevailed during the 70s and 80s. This, he added, would be a serious error and would not be conform to the reality. This Round is really a development agenda, not just in name, he said in substance, also recalling that they share many lines of thought, and that many South and many North positions are considered in the debates. The question regarding the base for negotiation is purely a procedural matter and will be settled at the level of the working group on agriculture, he said. Circles close to the Commissioner said it is a false debate and one should move onto substance. The Commissioner specified that, in Cancun, tangible progress must be made on all tricky issues from agriculture to industrial tariffs, from the environment to the Singapore issues and that this must be done within the time set. He went on to stress that, as in other fields, in farming issues "we have stopped showing we are willing to reach an agreement, since the ambitious proposals that we put on the table in January to the agreement that we concluded with the United States, at the express request of our partners during the summer". A little earlier, Mr Lamy had recalled that, on behalf of the EU, they had proposed abolishing export subsidies on some products in the interest of developing countries which must now take up this offer and present them with a certain number of demands. He said he was awaiting their proposals. In plenary, he asked: "What characterises the position of the European Union in this conference and in the Doha Development Agenda as a whole? In a word, opening. We are ready to go the little way that separates us from an agreement".