Brussels, 29/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - The threats made last Thursday in Lisbon by the Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson to revise the European's offer at the WTO if there are no new and substantial concessions made by some of the members (EUROPE 9433) were not without some foundation: scepticism is winning ground in Geneva where there appears to be a total blockage on the agricultural chapter in Doha negotiations, as well as in the chapter on manufactured goods. Although on Friday the president of the negotiations on NAMA (market access for non-agricultural/manufactured products), Don Stephenson, from Canada, deplored the total absence of convergence on this dossier between rich and developing countries, his counterpart at the agricultural negotiations committee, Crawford Falconer, from New Zealand, outlined the main divergences persisting between members, as well as the slight progress made on key issues. On Saturday he regretted that, “there are too many variables…with positions too wide apart for any compromise to be in sight”.
In his second contribution in search of a compromise on agriculture (after the one published on 30 April: EUROPE 9417, 9420 and 9422), Mr Falconer proposed on Saturday to significantly reduce customs duties imposed by developed countries on tropical products from developing countries and limiting measures protecting the latter from massive imports of agricultural goods. According to Falconer's proposal, developed countries should reduce their tariffs to zero on at least 25% of tropical products and introduce an 85% reduction in tariffs that are below this 25% threshold. Falconer is also proposing to limit use of the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM), which enables developing countries to increase their customs duties in order to protect their economies against sharp increased of agricultural imports by making this instrument, “workable and responsive to genuine need”. Although this goes against the position of the “Friends of Special Products” countries in the G33, the group of 46 developing countries with substantial rural populations, led by Indonesia and India and which are demanding that the mechanism is applied to all imported products (EUROPE 9389-9392), Falconer's proposal is, however, in agreement with the position of net agriculturally exporting countries from the Cairns Group.
Although a final compromise text on agriculture and NAMA developed by Falconer and Stephenson is expected at the beginning of July, differences still appear to be substantial between WTO members on the agricultural chapter. In a letter addressed to the WTO at the beginning of last week, Chinese ministers, Bo Xilai (trade) and Sun Shengcai (agriculture) called on the richest countries, the USA and the Union to, “offer effective cuts” in their agricultural subsidies. Sceptical about the possibility of concluding the round without having to wait for years, the Australian trade minister, Warren Truss warned that Canberra would, “fight to protect its rights and to keep its state trading farms”. Kamal Nath from India deplored on the weekend, the “absence of a political will” from rich countries to reach a balanced compromise for developing countries. The French minister of agriculture, Christine Lagarde warned that she would not accept a compromise in the interests of farmers from her country to reach an agreement. Signs that were not very encouraging were made even more sombre by the sudden death on Monday of the Japanese minister for agriculture, Toshikatsu Matsuoka. (eh)