Asia Pulse | November 15, 2001
CANBERRA - The benefit of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to smaller countries has been amply demonstrated by the formal end to United States quotas on Australian lamb, said Australia's National Farmers Federation.
The action, which had been expected for several months, ended a controverisal quota that was ruled illegal by the WTO. Under the quota, Australia and New Zealand faced a schedule of tariffs ranging up to 40 per cent on shipments of lamb to the United States.
National Farmers Federation president Ian Donges said there were elements of both goodwill from the Americans in the lamb agreement and a case of them having to be dragged kicking and screaming to it.
"We've heard from the US representatives that they were keen to align themselves with the Cairns (negotiating) group way of thinking when it comes to agricultural trade reform and they were keen to align themselves with Australia," he told reporters.
"But in the end they also talked a lot about preserving their domestic subsidy support, they talked about their farm bill which is going through their parliament now."
Mr Donges said the most important factor for Australia was that the WTO was where to resolve all such issues.
"You can't resolve these issues on a one-to-one basis because Australia is just not powerful enough when it comes to those trade negotiations.
"That's why I'm extremely pleased that the WTO was able to get an outcome. We were able to get an outcome that will improve the lot of Australian farmers."
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