IPS | October 4, 2001 | By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA - The agriculture proposal that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) presented Thursday for the upcoming ministerial conference in Qatar has left many parties unsatisfied, but has created a chance for unblocking the contentious agricultural negotiations.
Up until this Thursday, many of the 142 WTO member nations had expressed displeasure with the proposals that the Geneva-based institution had distributed last week for the ministerial conference because the texts omitted concrete recommendations for agricultural trade.
But the chairman of the WTO General Council, Stuart Harbinson - ambassador from Hong Kong and in charge of drawing up the conference declaration to be signed by the ministers in the Qatar capital next month -, finally announced his proposal for the chapter on agrarian trade.
Harbinson's approach, however, won criticism from the two principal blocs that clashing on the question of subsidies: the European Union (EU) and its allies Japan, South Korea, Norway and Switzerland, and the Cairns Group, consisting of non-protectionist agricultural export countries.
Nevertheless, the delegations receiving the new proposal acknowledged that it provides the balance that was lacking in last week's document. Now, say negotiators, it has the necessary items to be included in negotiations.
The WTO wants its fourth ministerial conference, to meet in Doha, Qatar, Nov 9-13, to open a new round of multilateral trade talks, particularly after seeing its attempts to do so frustrated at the last conference, held in the US city of Seattle in late 1999.
Harbinson and the WTO Director-General Mike Moore, of New Zealand, recently disseminated two documents summarising their opinions about the status of the debate on the future of multilateral negotiations in general.
One of these drafts took up the matter of implementing the agreements made during previous talks but which had not yet entered into force, largely due to the reticence of the industrialised countries.
The second document contained the preliminary declaration of ministers for the Doha meet, with references to the future of the WTO, and laying the groundwork for a new round of multilateral negotiations on issues such as competition, government acquisitions, facilitation of trade, and anti-dumping (disloyal competition) standards, among others.
In the chapter on agriculture, however, the draft was limited to outlining the issues in question, but without giving them with any sort of orientation.
Tanzanian negotiator Ali Mchumo, representing the least- developed countries (LDCs) before the WTO, protested the lack of action on agricultural issues, stressing that it is a critical area upon which many other matters depend.
In his proposal outlined here Thursday, Harbinson provides another update on the long-term objective for agriculture established by during follow-up on the Uruguay Round.
That objective, stressed Harbinson, is "to establish a fair and market-oriented trading system through a programme of fundamental reform, with specific commitments to correct and prevent restrictions and distortions in the agriculture markets."
Some members of the Cairns Group, which calls for greater market opening, charge that the wording Harbinson has chosen for the ministerial text "is not strong enough."
In reference to what are known as the "three pillars" of agricultural trade, Harbinson mentions first that the parties to the negotiations must commit to "substantial improvements in market access."
As far as the second pillar, or export subsidies, the WTO official recommends reductions aimed at a phase-out, and in the third, he calls for "substantial reductions" in trade-distorting domestic subsidies.
Most of the protectionist measures for the agricultural sector that are applied by industrialised countries, including the United States, are based on these three pillars.
Harbinson's proposals prompted forceful objections from the 18 nations of the Cairns Group, which questioned the term "phase-out" of export subsidies, arguing that it is much weaker than calling for the elimination of such forms of protectionism.
Meanwhile, Carlo Trojan, the Dutch ambassador speaking on behalf of the EU, stated that Harbinson's approach to export subsidies is unacceptable.
The WTO official's recommendations were communicated verbally to the representatives of 34 countries present at the organisation headquarters Thursday.
When the final text of the initiative is formally released, the set of draft documents that the members of the WTO are to debate in the lead-up to the Qatar conference will be complete.
Without references to agriculture, these texts were totally lop-sided, commented a source from the Cairns Group, who added that at least now there is a possibility that the trade talks now will get under way.IPS:
