Ministers Leave Zurich with No Breakthrough
World leaders agree to return to Geneva next week to continue negotiations.
Jacqui Fatka
Published: Oct 12, 2005
Key ministers failed to breakthrough on troubled agricultural world trade negotiations Wednesday in Zurich, Switzerland. Ministers from the European Union, United States, Brazil, India and Australia will come together again in Geneva next Wednesday afternoon and Thursday to keep progress rolling after the United States proposed a bold plan this week.
Negotiators have nine weeks before a key ministerial meeting in Hong Kong. Any agreement in the World Trade Organization requires unanimous support from all of its 148 members.
Reuters reports that trade negotiators and analysts say the focus is now on EU's willingness to offer more agricultural market access and agree to the steep tariff cuts that the United States proposed.
The United States proposal calls for 60% cuts in amber box payments-- the most trade-distorting type. U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman explains that currently U.S. allows $19 billion dollars in the amber box category; we use about $14 billion. "So a sixty percent reduction takes us down to about $7.6 billion from $14 billion," he says.
Right now the United States has farmer support that is at one level but the European support is a lot higher. Right now the EU has four and a half times the support level of the U.S. Portman explains that even though the EU says the support ratio is three to one, if negotiations made it two to one, "that is closer to one to one than three to one."
Some trading partners expressed that with the U.S. proposal, funding could be shifted to other boxes. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns explains that isn't possible with the blue box category capped at 2.5% of the total value of agricultural production. "I know the size of those programs and I know that current size of the countercyclical program just won't shift over, it's not going to fit," Johanns says.
Congress concerned negotiations are writing next farm bill
Several legislators, including House and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairmen Bob Goodlatte and Saxby Chambliss have sent warning shots to the Administration reminding them that current negotiations should not reshape farm policy without the full input of Congress and grassroots support.
"Any substantial structural changes to the farm safety net must account for the varying types of agriculture in the United States. For example, policies best suited for the eastern Com Belt may not be appropriate for southern agriculture or that found in the western states," Chambliss says.
A letter Chambliss wrote to Johanns calls for countercyclical payments' inclusion in a new blue box system. Chambliss also wants the same amount of monetary support provided to the farmers, just in different forms. He asked Johanns that the implementation timeline be spread out over 10 years instead of five.
When asked about the Administration's role in the next farm bill with the negotiations, Johanns says, "We aren't writing the farm bill. Congress will write the farm bill." Instead Johanns states the negotiations are shaping the parameters for Congress to work with during the next farm bill writing.
Permalink: Click here
Tagged: farm, farm bill, southern agriculture
|