Luxembourg, 22/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - EU ministers of agriculture gave their support on Monday to the European Commission in its efforts to reach a compromise at the WTO before the end of July on the modalities for a framework agreement on the liberalisation of trade. Many of them, however, requested: the balance to be maintained between the three sections (market access, internal support and export aid); other partners, such as the EU, made commitments to reduce their export aid; the customs tariffs reduction for preserving the most sensitive Community agricultural products; geographical indications do not figure in the agreement, as well as worries about other non-trade issues (environment, animal welfare, product quality etc).
France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ireland, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland are the countries that expressed most concerns about WTO negotiations. The United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark encouraged the Commission to continue negotiations and considered that the EU should go more on the offensive by even improving its offer, based on what the other partners propose. On internal support, everyone recognises that reform of the Common Agricultural Policy has allowed more room for manoeuvre, via decoupling, reduction of direct aid linked to production (categorised as "blue box") and therefore more transfers of this aid to the "green box". Commissioner Franz Fischler acknowledged that the USA had not done so well in reducing their aid from the blue box and that this delay risked "penalising the whole negotiation process".
The French delegation insisted on the balance of the three pillars. On market access the formula has to maintain Community preference and aid to the poorest countries, demands France, which also thinks that the EU should not reduce duty on the most sensitive products. France also criticised the attitude of G20 countries. Ireland expressed its concern about the timetable proposed by the Commission. British minister, Margaret Beckett, explained that the tariff reduction could provide LDCs will an estimated USD 300 million a year. Her German counterpart, Renate Künast, supported the Commission and pointed out that farming was just one aspect of the negotiations. Italian minister Giovanni Alemanno remarked that the EU alone had made concessions and the fact that the other partners had not shifted could be interpreted as a sign of weakness on the part of Europe. According to Alemanno, the idea of setting a ceiling for "blue box" aid could be seen as a further concession from the EU On market access, Italy supported the maintaining of the safeguard clause and setting specific customs duties for particularly sensitive products (rice, fruit and vegetables, garlic, fruit juice, lemons and poultry). Poland also doubted that the effects of trade liberalisation would be positive for tobacco, bioethanol, sugar containing products. Spain asked for the agreement to include a definition of a multilateral register for protecting the geographical indications of wine and spirits.