A statement from Washington said the following countries, the United States, the European Union, India, Brazil, Japan and Australia have agreed in Geneva they were moving toward consensus on eliminating duties and quotas for nearly all imports from the least developed countries.
U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said that the ministers set a March 1 deadline for concluding negotiations on agricultural export subsidies. Portman said that issue has become the last difficult for negotiators since ministers already agreed in July 2004 on eliminating export subsidies but left the target year open for further negotiation.
"So we have established that March 1 as a date for forcing the negotiation," Portman said. "I’m not suggesting this is a huge accomplishment today , but it is something new," he added.
Ministers from six key countries had been meeting in Geneva to work out whatever progress they could ahead of a December 13-18 WTO ministerial in Hong Kong. They reiterated that they expect no breakthroughs at Hong Kong.
The EU acounts for about 90 percent of agricultural export subsidies spending and the U.S. for most of the rest.
Portman added that concluding the export subsidies negotiation would require agreement not only on the deadline but also in disciplines for state trading enterprises and food aid.
Aside from export subsidies, the other major agricultural trade issues are domestic support payments to farmers and tariffs.
The Washington statement said that since the U.S. submitted October 10 a proposal for sharply reducing both domestic support and tariffs, it has joined other countries pressing the EU to make its own robust offer.
So far, the EU offer on tariffs has been rejected by other WTO members as offering no real additional market access.
Christian Baker, spokeswoman for the Officer of the U.S. Trade Representative, praised general statemetns from Brazil and India, leaders of the G20group of developing countries, signalling their willingness to cut tariffs.
"It is particularly helpful given the current state of affairs in the negotiations and the need to create a momentum in the negotiations overall, and in agriculture in particular," she said.(BCM)
