By William Dhlamini
JOHANNESBURG Nov 24 (IPS) - In a new round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) global trade talks, the European Union is likely to agree on a phase-out of its farm subsidies only if it wins concessions in other areas, says UK trade minister Richard Caborn.
The UK trade minister is in SA to attend the third UK-SA partnership week.
"We will only make changes to the (EU) Common Agriculture Policy as part of a broad round with other areas which bring compensating gains," says Caborn.
Therefore, the next WTO round will have to cover a broad area," says Caborn.
The UK trade minister accepted that the protectionist Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the EU would need to be drastically reformed and that the EU needed to phase out many of its tens of billions of dollars in annual agricultural subsidies.
The last WTO trade talks ended in acrimony in Seattle last year, amid developing countries and civil society protests that industrial nations, especially the US and the EU, ride rough-shod over their concerns.
Developing nations have been complaining that WTO rules are loaded in favour of industrialised countries.
They charge that rich nations have hijacked the WTO trade rules for their own ends: to force through free trade in hi-tech goods and services while refusing to open the doors to poorer countries' farm and textile exports.
The EU's CAP is one of the thorns in the flesh of developing countries, who argue that it gives EU countries an unfair advantage.
It makes it harder for the farm products from developing countries to enter into the EU market, but heavily subsidised EU farm products flood developing countries markets. Caborn warned that a delay in starting a new round of global trade talks would reduce the pressure on the EU to reform its CAP.
The EU has been pushing for a wide-ranging agenda for a new round of trade talks, saying it should include agriculture, services and industrial tariffs as well as investment and competition rules and discussion of environmental and labour issues.
The EU demand to discuss minimum labour standards has alienated many developing countries, who fear the issue could be used as a tool to keep out their exports.
Caborn says the benefits from trade liberalisation must be spread more evenly among all nations. According to a recent UNCTAD (U.N Conference on Trade and Development) report, much of the external aid to Africa has been offset by deteriorating terms of trade between the continent and developed countries.
Between 1997 and 1999, the combined annual index of free market prices for primary commodities, which represent 80 percent of Africa's export earnings, fell by 25 percent.
Despite rapidly rising export volumes in the 1990s, the purchasing power of exports remained below the levels attained in the early 1980s. At the same time, rapid trade liberalisation in Africa in the 90s has not been matched by increased market access on the developed countries.
"A major challenge of the next WTO trade negotiations will be to provide a better deal for the world poorest nations," says Caborn.
Caborn pledged British support for a South African effort to narrow the gap between developed and developing nations to kick-start the next round of World Trade Organisation's global trade talks.
"The UK trade minister vowed to work closely with SA trade minister, Alec Erwin, whom have spearheading some of the developing nations efforts to get the trade negotiations back on track.
"I hope that the UK and SA can continue to work in partnership to push the case for a launch of a WTO round," says Caborn. "SA has the credibility and credentials to hold together the next round," says Caborn.
The UK trade minister says the Commonwealth organisation could also play a role in re-starting the trade talks. Caborn says the UK will push for a new round of WTO talks to take place during the second half of next year.
"As we approach the 2001, with the prospect of a new US administration and the fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in the autumn, we hope to see a new round successfully launched," says Caborn.
The UK trade minister says details of EU participation in a possible new round of global trade talks were on the agenda of a European Union meeting in Paris next week.
Pretoria believes developing nations should have a united approach to global trade talks in order to effectively break the stranglehold rich nations expert on the WTO.
SA's Erwin and SA President Thabo Mbeki are leading figures in an attempt to try to cement a southern hemisphere power bloc to present a united developing nation front during the next WTO trade round.:
