Poor countries say farm reform key to trade round<\/p>\n
GENEVA (Reuters): Key developing countries have signaled
\nstrongly this week that they will refuse to agree to a new global
\ntrade round unless the big powers pledge to work to end all farm
\nsupport, diplomats said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The message has come from delegations to three days of talks
\non agricultural reform at the World Trade Organization (WTO),
\nfrom a Zanzibar meeting of the world's 49 poorest states (LDCs)
\nand from Southeast Asian foreign ministers in Hanoi.<\/p>\n
\"The farm subsidy issue is building up a hard head of steam,\"
\nsaid one trade envoy. \"It could really be a killer as far as a
\nround is concerned.\"<\/p>\n
And the warning was driven home by a senior official from
\nBrazil, emerging as a major player in trade diplomacy, who told
\nreporters in Geneva that his country would not agree to a round
\nunless quick dismantling of farm subsidies was on the agenda.<\/p>\n
\"Brazil cannot accept a comprehensive round with a narrow
\nmandate in agriculture,\" declared the official, Pedro de Camargo
\nNeto, who headed his national team at WTO discussions on farm
\ntrade reform.<\/p>\n
Poorer countries -- backed by richer farm powers like
\nAustralia and Canada -- say subsidies protect domestic markets
\nfrom cheaper foreign imports, and give subsidized exporters an
\nunfair advantage in global markets.<\/p>\n
WTO Director-General Mike Moore has set next Tuesday as a time
\nfor \"bench-marking\" whether conditions were shaping up for
\nagreement on a round to be ready for approval by trade ministers
\nfrom its 141 members at a meeting in Qatar in November.<\/p>\n
But although this week's farm trade talks in Geneva were not
\nformally linked to the project, diplomats said they gave little
\nencouragement to its backers -- primarily the European Union, the
\nUnited States and Japan.<\/p>\n
The chief EU delegate to the talks told reporters on Tuesday
\nthat he saw little chance of agreement on farm reform being
\nreached outside a round -- which Brussels wants to include talks
\non rules for investment and competition policy.<\/p>\n
Developing countries think this is simply a cover that will
\nenable the EU to put off for as long as possible having to
\naddress the hot political issue of domestic support and export
\nsubsidies to its farmers.<\/p>\n
The United States would be happy with a smaller agenda to
\ninclude negotiations on slashing tariffs on goods. But poorer
\nstates insist it must abandon export credits.<\/p>\n
Brazil's Camargo Neto said on Wednesday both EU and U.S.
\nsupport systems were bad, and were emblematic of how the big
\npowers had ensured that the outcome of the 1986-93 Uruguay Round
\nworked in their favor.<\/p>\n
\"We (the developing countries) open our markets for them. They
\nkeep their subsidies and deprive us of our markets through this
\niniquitous subsidy system,\" he said.<\/p>\n
But in contrast to anti-globalization protesters, who include
\nmany farmers' groups in Europe and argue they are defending poor
\nnations by fighting free trade, Camargo Neto said developing
\ncountries wanted to see liberalization.<\/p>\n
\"For all developing countries, agricultural exports are the
\nkey to our progress, to fighting poverty, providing jobs -- and
\ncreating reliable markets for producers in the rich countries,\"
\nhe said. \"People in developed countries must understand that.\"<\/p>\n
At the Zanzibar meeting of LDCs, or countries designated by
\nthe United Nations as the world's least developed, Tanzania and
\nother delegations also targeted big power farm subsidies, linking
\nguaranteed progress on the issue to a round.<\/p>\n
In Hanoi on Tuesday, foreign ministers of the ASEAN grouping
\nagreed to work for a common stand to address the decline in world
\nprices for commodities, on which many poorer countries depend,
\nthrough pressure for an end to EU and U.S. farm support.<\/p>",
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