New compromise texts expected end April

Brussels, 11/04/2008 (Agence Europe) - As we announced earlier (EUROPE 9636), a ministerial meeting of the WTO may be convened during the week of 19 May to finalise the broad lines of a compromise on the arrangements for trade liberalisation in agriculture and for non agricultural market access (NAMA) products. Crawford Falconer, who chairs the WTO agricultural negotiation committee, told the press on 9 April that progress had been made on sensitive products, the simplification of customs duties and domestic subsidies that affect trade the least (and put away in the “green box”). Australia, Brazil, Canada, the United States, Japan and the EU have de facto managed to reach a technical compromise on the method for calculating domestic consumption which will make it possible to determine the increase of tariff quotas on imports of sensitive goods. It is now a question of getting the other WTO member nations to agree, Mr Falconer explained. The New Zealand ambassador to the WTO said that, before being able to submit a new revised project for a global agreement likely to be put to trade ministers, the negotiators must still close the gap between their positions on tropical products and preferential import arrangements for certain developing countries. Mr Falconer hopes to be able to conclude technical talks on 11 April to then begin drafting his new revised text that could see the day, like that of his opposite number for NAMA, Don Stephenson, at the end of April. Speaking in Paris on 8 April, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy announced that he would not take “the decision to gather ministers in Geneva unless he feels that there is reasonable chance of reaching an agreement”. “For now it is possible that this will happen in May”, he added. “We are working on draft compromises on the three most important chapters of the negotiation: reduction of farm subsidies, agricultural customs duties and industrial customs duties. Two versions have been proposed since last year, and a third version should be on the table by the end of April”, Mr Lamy said. (E.H.)