Negotiators need to make "some tangible progress" by the end of this week if they are to meet the April 30 deadline for the next stage of a multilateral World Trade Organization agreement. However, little agricultural progress was made Monday in Geneva between negotiators.
Crawford Falconer, New Zealand ambassador to the WTO and chairman of the talks, proposed negotiators develop texts on "food aid, subsidized export credit, state trading enterprises, clearer statements of the different positions on disciplines for semi-trade-distorting domestic supports and new criteria for non-trade-distorting supports used by developing countries" according to a Congress Daily brief.
Falconer also suggested negotiators might take up the formulas for cutting trade-distorting domestic subsidies and for cutting tariff formulas.
After little movement in Hong Kong, ministers are meeting every couple of weeks to keep talks rolling. Recently lead nations pledged to work together on future proposals to help jumpstart stalled talks.
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