Leaders Wave Goodbye to April 30 WTO Deadline
WTO Agriculture Chairman attempts to get the ball rolling on discussions only to find countries unwilling to make concessions.
Compiled by staff
Published: Apr 21, 2006
Former World Trade Organization Agricultural Committee Chairman Tim Grosser was pretty optimistic that the current round of WTO negotiations wouldn't fail. Last June he said that WTO and its predecessor organization are on their eighth round of substantial talks to liberalize world trade. "We always do the right thing in the wrong way in too long of time."
WTO is known for missing deadlines, and the much anticipated April 30 deadline proved that point once again. Agriculture leaders gathered in Geneva this week and were unable to make progress on several issues. WTO sources say an early May meeting of trade ministers in Geneva is likely to be canceled or postponed.
EU and US leaders were quick to point the blame at one another. Speaking in Finland, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson says while the EU has been scaling back farm payments, the United States has not reduced farm spending as part of the negotiations. Mandelson also wants assurances about industrial tariffs from the G20 group of countries led by Brazil and India.
The only real deadline now is the end of the year to get Congressional approval before Trade Promotion Authority expiration. The current WTO Agriculture Chairman Crawford Falconer is planning three two-week meetings on agriculture between May 1 and June 9, according to CongressDaily. In between the meetings, leaders will return to their governments.
Minor accomplishments come out of week's talks
A U.S. senior trade official explains that progress was seen in a few ways during the week. Falconer put out several papers to get leaders closer to the outlines of what would be a negotiated text. None of them were accepted completely, but generally people bought into both his process and his basic structure and conclusions, the trade official explains.
"We have really now a vehicle to try and build up a text and we have a process to do that. It's on some important issues. He's got food aid in there. He's got state trading in there, things that are really going to matter," the officials says. "He hasn't solved all the issues. But those things are in place and starting to be built."
More exchange occurred with some of the key players on key issues, including sensitive products. Trade officials don't anticipate major deals coming on food aid and state trading enterprises until the broader agreement is done.
The trade official also notes that there is no "Plan B" should this round fail and only minor improvements in the trade environment could be made.
Permalink: Click here
Tagged: farm
|