Agriculture reforms failed at WTO because of EU, Japan, director says
Wednesday, March 8, 2000
BLOOMBERG NEWS
LONDON -- Seattle's World Trade Organization meeting in December failed to reach agreement on cutting agricultural subsidies in part because the European Union and Japan were not prepared to accept crucial sacrifices, WTO Director-General Mike Moore said yesterday.
Moore criticized the "neo-fascist" behavior of some protesters at the conference in Seattle. The protests might have been legitimate, he said; preventing delegates from taking part in the conference was not.
December's meeting of the 135-member WTO failed to reach agreement on a number of market-opening agreements, after developing nations protested being excluded from final deliberations and threatened to walk out. Violent street demonstrations also disrupted the meeting.
"I do not believe Europe and Japan could have accepted massive changes in agriculture unless there were major tradeoffs in other areas," said Moore, testifying to a parliamentary committee.
Developing countries have legitimate grounds for complaining against non-trade barriers to imports that developed countries have installed, Moore said yesterday. One example is the EU's decision to raise import standards for beef from South Africa and Botswana.
"I think the developing countries have a case where they say in agriculture the amount of money put into subsidies has actually gone up and not down," he said.
Talks between WTO members on cutting agricultural tariffs and subsidies are due to begin again later this month, as the 5-year-old trade organization tries to rebuild momentum for its stalled reform agenda.
Moore also said the WTO's policies did not contribute to environmental degradation any more than the domestic trade policies already in place in many countries.
"Of course, trade affects the environment," he said. "The question you have to ask is, 'Does trade between countries cause greater havoc than trade within a country?' I don't think so."
Moore said the WTO should come under the scrutiny of national governments and was better off as a result of it. It can only act with the powers permitted it by sovereign governments, he said.
The organization also has a limited budget, which means it can only respond to one-fifth of the requests it gets for technical assistance, he said.
The WTO, Moore concluded, still needs to convince people of its worth. "It's got to be up to us to prove there's something in this for everyone," Moore said.:
