G-33 upbeat WTO members will accept special treatment offer

G-33 upbeat WTO members will accept special treatment offer

Zakki P. Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Group of 33 developing countries is upbeat about its chances
that World Trade Organization members will accept its proposal on
the implementation details of special and differential treatment
in protecting staple farm products.

WTO general council chairwoman Amina Chawahir Mohamed said the
importance of the Special Product and Special Safeguard Mechanism
(SP-SSM) has been accommodated in the July 2004 framework, thus
the grouping would have to negotiate the details.

"The devil is always in the details," she said in a press
conference on the closing day of the G-33 Ministerial Meeting
here on Sunday.

Honduras Ambassador for the WTO Dacio Castilio Flores said the
grouping had a bigger chance of being heard in the agriculture
negotiations considering the G-33 represents almost two-thirds of
the world's population. "G-33 is the biggest group in the
negotiations, thus chances are now among the biggest one."

Therefore, the grouping has moved forward, Indian Minister of
Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath said, "in what would be the
possible criteria for special products, in the sense that
agriculture to different countries means different things."

"In the U.S., the farmer is a corporation, in India a farmer
is subsistence, where he earns less than $1 a day," Nath said.

Earlier this month, the Indonesian-led G-33 had presented a
proposal of principles and practical details on how to implement
the SP-SSM concept.

The group proposed that the Special Products should not be
subject to tariff reductions and "neither of these goods can be
subject to commitments on tariff rate quota (TRQ)."

Special Products should also have access to the Special
Safeguard Mechanism, which should be automatically triggered in
cases of surging import volumes or swings in international
prices.

The meeting, which was chaired by Indonesian trade minister
Mari E. Pangestu, has sought to strengthen the group's commitment
and produced political guidelines for negotiators in undertaking
talks at the sixth WTO Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong in
December.

The delegations agreed on a communique on Sunday that would
guide the G-33 in making positive contributions to negotiations
leading to the July first approximation and the adoption of full
modalities during the December meeting.

The G-33, comprises 42 developing countries, however only 18
attended the two-day event. The G-33 aims at ensuring issues on
food security, livelihood security and rural development become
an integral part of the ongoing WTO trade talks and outcomes, as
called for by the Doha Development Agenda.

Delegations spared 10 minutes to hear an appeal from local
farmers groups and non-governmental organizations.

In its statement, the alliance said, "the developing countries
should unite and be more persistent in opposing the global trade
regime controlled by industrial countries, a trade regime that
had showed negative impacts to the people in developing
countries."

It appealed to the G-33 to include agrarian reform and food
sovereignty as basic development policies to increase the
prosperity and rights of peasants.

"No country will remain sovereign and advance if they keep
depending on their food needs externally," said the statement,
read by Achmad Ya'kub of the Federation of Indonesian Peasants
Union, a member of Via Campesina International Peasant Movement.