Agriculture stalls WTO agenda By Frances Williams in Geneva
With only a week to go before the opening of the World Trade Organisation's third ministerial meeting in Seattle, trade envoys in Geneva were last night still locked in negotiations over key portions of the draft declaration by ministers which is supposed to set out the agenda for a new trade liberalisation round. Trade diplomats said yesterday the US, the European Union and the Cairns Group of agricultural exporting nations were trying to thrash out a draft text on agriculture that would lay out a limited number of options.
Rita Hayes, US WTO ambassador, said "progress had been made" but others were more doubtful. The EU is opposing US and Cairns Group insistence on a reference to the elimination of export subsidies, while the EU wants references to food safety, quality and animal welfare which the US and Cairns Group find unacceptable.
Japan was also said to be unhappy about the emerging text which does not include a reference to the "multifunctional nature" of agriculture. The EU appears to have settled for the term "non-trade concerns", but Japan and Korea want stronger language making clear that agricultural trade cannot be treated like other merchandise trade.
More generally, the EU and Japan are pressing for a broad-based round that would go much further than the already-programmed talks on agriculture and services. However, the US favours a narrow round based mainly on negotiating improved market access for goods and services.
WTO ambassadors some time ago gave up hope of reaching agreement on a draft agenda for the forthcoming talks, concentrating their efforts instead on reducing a jumble of country wish-lists to a readable text with clear choices.
WTO ambassadors are due to meet this afternoon to discuss a new draft but last night it had still not appeared.