Brussels/Cancun, 11/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - On the day after the opening of the Cancun conference, a day of transition and organisation, especially marked by the tragic death of a South Korean farmer at the anti-globalisation demonstrations and the spat between the North and the South over agriculture, trade ministers from the 146 Member States of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) got down to the nitty-gritty of the matter on Thursday: how to five a political boost to the negotiations on the Doha Development Agenda were dangerous dissent exists regarding the goals and scope of the programmed reforms? Agriculture is a battleground between the trade superpowers and the opposition to all kinds of subsidies and tariff protection in the rich countries, embodied by the G-21, is obviously one of the core dilemmas that the summit will try its best to clarify, get around or get over.
Political consultations, that were expected to begin at the end of the afternoon (European time) and continue at least ill Sunday evening will be "facilitated" by five figures and handpicked by the Chairman of the conference, the Mexican foreign Affairs Minister Luis Ernesto Derby: on agriculture, the Minister of Trade and Industry from Singapore, George Yeo, who will look at the sensitive matter that he was already attempting to sort out at Doha; on access to non agricultural markets, Financial Secretary from Hong Kong, Henry Tang, on development issues, Kenyan Minister of Trade and Industry, Mukhisa Kituyi; on issues affecting Singapore, the Canadian Minister of International Trade, Pierre Pettigrew and the Minister of External Trade of Guyana, Clement Rohee will be in charge of leading discussions on other difficult issues such as the multilateral register for geographical indications on wines and spirits and also perhaps that on cotton if the action strongly requested by African countries, highly dependent on this production, is not in the end integrated into discussions on agriculture or development.
Ministers, accompanied by their closest collaborators, were still in meetings as we went to press and were expected to reach a decision on this points as they were on the organisation of the entire organisation of the work at Cancun. For the instant, each party directly concerned by the African demand (centred on the end of protection and subsidies for rich countries and hence compensation) are sticking to their guns. The USA, to begin with, are bringing up other unfair trade practices, such as industrial policies that increase the production of man-made fibres, higher tariffs on manufactured products. Others -Canada, Australia, Argentina, Cameroon, Guinea, South Africa and Bangladesh explicitly sympathise. As does Supachai Panichpakdi: when this request was formally presented at the summit by Ministers from Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad. The Director General of the WTO, stressing that this is not a habit of his to intervene in a debate, called on the 146 to take this important affair seriously. The Four are not requesting special treatment but a fair settlement and their position underlines the need of ambitious results on agriculture, he said.