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GENEVA, Switzerland —(AP)— Poor countries hit back at the world's leading economies last week, claiming that helping poorer nations must be the major aim of a global treaty on agricultural trade. A group of countries, led by Brazil, India and China, submitted a proposal to the World Trade Organization that would force rich countries to make big cuts to import duties and farm subsidies while making much smaller demands on poorer nations. The proposal ``aims at contributing to move forward the agricultural negotiations with a view to achieving transparent, balanced and substantive results,'' Brazil said in a statement. Agriculture is the ``centerpiece'' of the current round of trade liberalization negotiations, Brazil said. Negotiators were trying to agree on a blueprint for negotiations in agriculture and other areas of trade before a meeting of ministers from all 146 WTO members in Cancun, Mexico, starting Sept. 10. Last week’s document is in reaction to a joint proposal put forward earlier by the United States and the European Union which called for big cuts in duties but stopped short of agreeing to complete elimination of export subsidies — a key demand of many major agricultural exporters. The new proposal does demand elimination, and also calls for major cuts in other sorts of subsidies, but gives a great deal of leeway to developing countries. In the crucial area of cuts to import tariffs, it calls for rich nations to make much more substantial cuts than poor ones. The proposal was signed by 16 countries — Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, South Africa and Thailand. EU senior negotiator Peter Carl was unimpressed. ``It is a repetition of well-known positions that we have heard for the past three years. There is nothing new in it,'' he told reporters. He said it was not a useful contribution to the negotiations. U.S. agriculture negotiator Allen Johnson was more measured, but said that at first sight ``it is hard to see that there is the level of ambition in all three (areas) and that everyone would be contributing to the reform process.'' Many of the countries that have signed the document are members of the Cairns Group of 17 agricultural exporters, but developed countries that belong to the group — Australia, New Zealand and Canada — are not on the list. ``We were asked to sign it after they had cooked it,'' Canadian Ambassador Sergio Marchi told reporters. He added, however, that he welcomed the document as ``a contribution'' to the discussions. Negotiators also have a number of other proposals to consider. Five developing countries led by Honduras have made a similar call for leeway for poorer nations, while Japan insists that import tariffs should be cut by a proportion rather than to a fixed level, a proposal that would avoid its having to make huge cuts to its massive rice duties. Switzerland and five other countries also support relatively modest cuts to import tariffs and insist that there should be no limit on the amount of subsidies they can pay to support farmers' incomes or for protection of the environment, consumer welfare and similar objectives. All the proposals will face heavy scrutiny by the negotiators with the hope that they can produce a single proposal to take to ministers in Cancun. Negotiations in agriculture already are months behind schedule and are threatening to prevent movement in other areas. The round is expected to be completed by the end of 2004. |
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