Fast Food Groups Push WTO Negotiations
Led by Yums Brands, lobbying effort to focus on highlighting benefits of free trade.
Compiled by staff
Published: Apr 19, 2005
For the first time, fast food restaurants are lobbying for freer food trade because they see this December's WTO Doha Round of trade negotiations in Hong Kong as pivotal for moving forward on establishing freer trade.
The Wall Street Journal reports that a coalition led predominantly by Yums Brands, operator of Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and A&W restaurants, is trying to recruit its competitors to lobby for free food trade. Called the Food Trade Alliance, the group's strategy is to generate publicity about what it sees at the benefits of freer food trade.
Because of U.S. fast-food companies growing overseas presence, "tariffs and duties can hamper the ability of these companies to find the least expensive ingredients in their worldwide operations. Costa Rica and Thailand, for example, impose stiff duties on french fries. India has a high duty on pasta. Several nations, such as Canada, tightly control cheese imports," WSJ reports.
The group, which largely is in favor of the Bush administration proposals in the Doha round to eliminate agriculture-export subsidies and reduce farm trading barriers, secured a meeting last week with Chief Agricultural Negotiator Allen Johnson. The group is slated to take its first big public stand Tuesday in Geneva, where the WTO has its headquarters.
Permalink: Click here
Tagged: farm
|