ASEAN seeks to end farm export subsidies

ASEAN seeks to end farm export subsidies

MANILA (Dow Jones): The Association of Southeast Asian Nations
has urged the World Trade Organization to remove trade-distorting
export subsidies and domestic support extended by developed
countries to their respective farm sectors.

The petition was made through an official statement presented
Monday by the Philippine Agriculture Undersecretary Arsenio
Balisacan, on behalf of the ASEAN members at the ongoing special
session of the World Trade Organization's Committee on
Agriculture in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Philippines Department of Agriculture issued the statement
Wednesday.

ASEAN has specifically asked for the elimination and
prohibition of export subsidies, reduction over time of all
trade-distorting support measures, improvement of market access
for developing countries through further reduction in tariffs,
among others.

"We believe that the objective of the negotiations should be
to level the playing field between those who can afford to
subsidize agriculture and those who can ill afford it," Balisacan
said.

Developed countries provide domestic subsidies to encourage
increased farm production, which effectively prevent the entry of
exports from developing countries.

Export subsidies allow rich countries to dominate the world
market by keeping the cost of their exports low.

The special session marks the end of the first phase of the
WTO negotiations on agricultural issues and prepares the work-
program for the next stages of negotiations.

In addition to the Philippines, ASEAN member countries include
Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand,
Vietnam and Cambodia.