Brussels, 19/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - At the 31st ministerial meeting of the Cairns group on 16, 17 and 18 April in Lahore, Pakistan, Director General of the WTO Pascal Lamy appeared fairly upbeat about the possibility of member countries finally reaching a compromise on modalities (figures and other provisions) for liberalising agricultural trade. In the comments reported by the Pakistani press agency APP and taken up by the Xinhua agency, Lamy stated: “a sufficient level of clarity in each of the three pillars of the negotiations on agriculture has been achieved”. The former European commissioner added: “I firmly believe that in agriculture, we are close to reaching the architecture of a final deal”. However, Mr Lamy did point out that “technical work remains to be done in some areas, in particular on export competition, and certain political decisions will need to be taken on the overall level of ambition across all three pillars of the negotiation” on agriculture. The director of the WTO mentioned the main stumbling blocks remaining in the agricultural negotiations, and made particular reference to the pillar on “market access” and questions relating to sensitive products, special products and Special Safeguard Mechanisms (SSM). Lamy also said that progress on the “domestic support” pillar was still being awaited, an area where there were issues concerning disciplines and caps and the level of overall trade-distorting domestic support. On “export competition”, the WTO director general raised the matter of “outstanding issues” related to parity with other kinds of export subsidies, export credits, food aid and state-trading enterprises. Mr Lamy concluded: “Many of these issues are 'tough nuts to crack', and even within this set of issues, some are more sensitive than others for various players” (ED: member countries).
Market access and end to agricultural subsidies at heart of Cairns group demands
At the end of their meeting in Lahore, trade ministers from the Cairns group of 19 net agricultural exporting countries (including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, and a group of several Latin American countries - Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Costa Rica, notably, as well as South East Asia countries - Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Pakistan and Thailand, stated: “Action is needed now to avoid putting the Round at grave risk of drifting indefinitely, or even failing”. The final declaration underlined that failure to conclude the round would “represent a major blow for development, for agricultural trade reform and for the multilateral trade system in general”. The ministers' final declaration also reiterated “that there can be no successful outcome to the Doha Round without a substantial package of reforms on agriculture”. In this context, the Cairns groups is calling on “the members responsible for the greatest distortions in global agricultural trade, the EU, US and Japan” to do “more to give effect to the far-reaching mandate for agricultural reform”. The group said that these countries “must take the opportunities to strengthen and deepen liberalisation in the WTO with domestic reform including through the next US Farm Bill and scheduled reviews of the CAP”. The Lahore declaration also reiterates the previous demands made by the group, namely, improved agricultural market access “to generate new commercial opportunities” for exports from its members, accompanied by the transparent “treatment of sensitive products” which must also be “coherent and equitable”. In this connection, the Cairns group is promising to “work with all members of the WTO towards convergence on the issues of special products and SSM”. Agricultural exporting countries are also demanding a hefty reduction in domestic subsidies that undermine trade, as well as implementation of an effective monitoring mechanism that guarantees transparency of member states' domestic policies. The Lahore declaration finally points out that the Cairns group has already agreed a date for ending their export subsidies, which will “require strong parallel disciplines to identify and eliminate other forms of export subsidies”. Giving voice to the Cairns group's optimism which believes that positive results can still be achieved, its acting president, Warren Truss from Australia, did, however, point out that negotiations ought to be extended to all WTO members.
G4 meeting at OECD ministerial conference in Paris 14-15 May
According to several diplomatic sources, G4 trade ministers (Union, US, Brazil and India) are expected to meet up at the OECD ministerial conference on 14-15 May in Paris for one of their three meetings programmed for May and June (EUROPE 9409). Japan and Australia are at the same time attempting to organise a meeting around 13 May in Tokyo with the G4. (eh)