[WTO Doha Round] Cairns farm trade group pushes for break in WTO talks

from The Lincoln Jounal Star

CAIRNS, Australia — The Cairns Group of farm exporting countries will press ahead with a plan to revive world trade talks, despite the European Unions’ rejection of the idea, Australia Prime Minister John Howard said.

Negotiations have stalled over reducing tariffs and subsidies for farmers in Europe, the United States and other developed countries such as Japan, where strong industry lobbies argue they won’t be able to compete against a flood of imports from poorer nations.

Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile will propose a plan under which the EU would agree to better by 5 percent its offer to reduce farm tariffs, while the U.S. would agree to cut subsidies by $5 billion. He described it as a “middle-ground” proposition.

Proponents say the talks must be revived quickly or momentum will be lost and reforms that could lift millions of people out of poverty will be set back by years.

The Cairns Group, a collection of 18 mostly Asian, South American and South Pacific countries that accounts for more than a quarter of the world’s trade in farmed products, strongly backs the goals of the World Trade Organization’s so-called Doha Round.

The plan, expected to be endorsed this week by the Cairns Group, will raise pressure on the United States, Europe and other developed countries to break the impasse on agricultural trade protection that has all but scuttled the current world trade round.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, who declined an invitation to the Cairns Group’s meeting that started Wednesday, has already rejected the plan as “undoable.” The U.S. negotiator at the meeting, Richard Crowder, said Washington might be flexible if other parties made concessions.

John Howard said the group’s plan would go ahead, adding “we are used to rejection by the Europeans.”

“Nothing is ever dead in the area of trade and negotiations,” Howard told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. late Tuesday. “We have been used to being knocked back in the past, and I’m sure that will continue to be the case, but eventually there will be a breakthrough.”

The Cairns Group members are Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Uruguay.

Vaile has billed the Cairns Group meeting, which opens Wednesday and ends Friday, as among the last chances to revive the talks, though a breakthrough is unlikely without top-level EU representation here.

WTO chief Pascal Lamy and U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab are attending the meeting as observers.