Killarney, 11/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - With the exception of fundamental objections by France, Ireland and Belgium, and objections from Italy, Slovakia and Cyprus on the timetable chosen to present the EU's offer, almost all Agriculture Ministers of the EU welcomed the initiative by Commissioners Pascal Lamy and Franz Fischler to relaunch WTO Doha round negotiations, announced at their informal meeting in Killarney (Ireland) on Tuesday. A new debate on the WTO will take place at the forthcoming meeting of the Agriculture Council, on 24 May.
At the press conference, Commissioner Franz Fischler said that the Council's debate and the positive reactions by some of the EU's partners in the WTO (including the US, Japan and Australia) show that "the Commission's approach [to the relaunch of the Doha round] has found a wide base of agreement". "I am able to tell you that our intention of relaunching negotiations at the WTO has been welcomed, and our letter will be seen as a shot in the arm", he added, explaining that "our proposal is not an empty envelope, but a well-filled and nicely tied up parcel".
"How can Europe protect the Common Agricultural Policy to the end of negotiations [at the WTO] if today it sends out signals for unilateral disarmament?" asked the French Ministers Hervé Gaymard, in his speech at the Council meeting. He reiterated that "accepting today to put" European refunds on "the WTO's table" in exchange for limited commitments on food aid, export credits and State commercial enterprises "would be a serious tactical error which Europe would pay for dearly in continuing rounds of negotiations, as we would have to choose between the pace of removing export subsidies and the degree of market openness". According to France, the commitment taken in Luxembourg in June 2003 "requires us not to put ourselves in the position of having to choose between two fundamentals of the CAP".
Mr Fischler rebutted the accusation made the previous day by Mr Gaymard, that with their offer, he and Mr Lamy had "overstepped" the negotiation mandate given them by the General Affairs Council to defend Community interests at the WTO. In his speech to ministers, Mr Fischler pointed out that from the word go, the Europeans had offered "to remove export subsidies for a list of products of interest to the DCs" and said "we clearly said that there would be no a priori, and therefore that no product was excluded". Mr Gaymard also criticised the Commission for harming the ACPs' interests by attempting to conclude a free-trade agreement with Mercosur without waiting for the end of Doha talks. He pointed out that the four Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) had a GDP 5 times that of all of the African sub-Saharan countries, and called for the priority to remain in favour of the poorest countries. Mr Fischler told France that the EU would make sure that it pays just once, not twice, and indicated that it was impossible to halt talks with these countries now.
The Irish delegation, which described the letter to the WTO as "a very strong initiative to invigorate the process", spoke of its "concerns on the timing" chosen to make this offer. According to the Irish, the EU's offer should not be seen as fresh concessions, and their efforts must be repaid.
Belgium voiced its regrets that the letter announced concessions without reference to the subject or the peace clause (until the end of 2003, article 13 of the agreement on the Uruguay round protects internal support measures and export subsidies against certain WTO actions on dispute settlement), or the safeguard clause (article 5 of the Agreement on the Uruguay round which allows WTO members to apply additional duties to prevent sudden floods of imports, or sudden drops in import prices).
In the opposite camp, the German Minister, Renate Künast, said that the letter was "very positive" and stressed that the EU cannot continue to defend just its own interests forever. Her British counterpart, Margaret Beckett, welcomed the initiative, which should help to move the negotiations forward. Sweden also congratulated the Commissioners for a step "in the right direction", referring to the willingness expressed to reduce European subsidies and to go on with CAP reforms.
Both during the meeting and before the press, Mr Fischler stressed that the latest European offer, designed to relaunch the Doha talks, was conditional upon similar gestures from the EU's main partners at the WTO. The EU is prepared to remove export aid, as long as: -satisfactory results are achieved on the "market access" plank; -considerations other than commercial ones are taken into account, including geographical indications; -the other WTO members commit to remove various forms of support which affect exports (export credit and export of agricultural surplus used by the US, privileges granted notably by Canada or Australia to States commercial enterprises).
In his speech to the Ministers, the Commissioners stressed that market access is the field in which most remained to be done, as WTO members' positions differ so greatly. Mr Fischler explained that the only way to reconcile the interests of all was to agree on a mixed formula, halfway between the approach of some of the larger exporting countries ("Swiss formula" defended notably by the Americans and the Cairns group comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Argentina), and that of the importing members ("Uruguay round formula", supported by the EU). Mr Fischler took stock of the problems in agreeing on this mixed formula, which came under fire last week from Brazil.
During the press conference, the current Council president, Joe Walsh, declared that the EU has already made many sacrifices in reforming its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and offering trade concessions, but these had not been sufficiently picked up by the other members. Thus it was necessary to communicate with NGOs and civil society (on efforts it has already made to free up trade and reform the CAP).