Brussels, 23/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - WTO agricultural mediator, New Zealand Ambassador Crawford Falconer, on 12 February, launched a month-long consultation exercise with 37 negotiators representing groups of countries (Cairns Group of agricultural exporting countries, G33 friends of special products, G20 emerging countries, G10 agricultural importing countries, African Group, C4 cotton-producing countries, Least Developed Countries, ACP (African, Caribbean, Pacific) countries, Tropical Products Group, Small Vulnerable Economies, the Group of new member countries) and key individual countries, such as the United States and India, to list the issue for debate and to gather reactions to his 6 December compromise text on technical arrangements (see EUROPE 9799). Australia coordinates the Cairns Group, Indonesia the G33, Brazil the G20, Switzerland the G10, Côte d'Ivoire the African Group, Burkina Faso the C4, Lesotho the Least Developed Countries, Jamaica the ACP, Costa Rica the Tropical Products Group, the Dominican Republic the Small Vulnerable Economies and Taiwan the new member countries. Falconer justified his cautious approach by saying that the new US Trade Representative Ron Kirk had not yet been confirmed in his post and he also pointed to the little progress in talks since December. (E.H./transl.rt)