Little progress in latest Doha Round ag talks
February 18, 2011 | 06:47 PM | Filed in: Trade
By JERRY HAGSTROM
Agriculture officials from around the world completed 10 days of negotiations on the World Trade Organization Doha Round agriculture talks in Geneva on Thursday, but made little or no progress, a source close to the WTO has told The Hagstrom Report.
David Walker, the New Zealand ambassador who chairs the agriculture talks, said at the end of session that he had heard little that is “audibly” new, the source said.
“We are losing one day every day," Walker told the delegates, who are supposed to revise the 2008 draft "modalities" text by April 21, reach agreement on texts in all Doha Round subjects by June or July, and conclude the round by the end of the year, the source said. The next negotiating session is scheduled for March 7.
The Doha Round, which is supposed to ease trade in agriculture, manufacturing and services trade, was launched in 2001, and the last meaningful negotiating session was held in 2008. In agriculture, delegates are trying to make changes in countries’ domestic subsidies, export subsidies, tariffs and other barriers to trade.
At the meeting in Geneva, the source said, delegates discussed tariff simplification that would replace complex customs duties forms with simpler forms, particularly regarding percentages of the price. They reportedly also discussed a special safeguard mechanism that would allow developing countries to raise tariffs temporarily to deal with price falls or import surges, as well as tariff quota creation, which implies countries would be allowed to label products as “sensitive” with a smaller than normal tariff cut, even if the products do not currently have tariff quotas.
Delegates from many countries raised issues that have gone unsettled for years, the source said.
Switzerland said that a deal on geographical indications — limiting the use of names such as “Champagne” sparking wine and “Parma” ham to products from those places — is needed to alleviate losses its farmers are going to suffer as a result of the agriculture negotiations. Australia said that geographical indications should be handled under intellectual property negotiations, and not the agriculture talks.
China and the European Union said any issues that have been more or less settled should not be reopened, while Brazil said that “nothing is fixed, nothing is untouchable.”
Brazil also called for significant improvements in agriculture market access, to match the demands developing countries face to open their non-agricultural and services markets, and Argentina said it agreed with Brazil on that point.
Agriculture officials from around the world completed 10 days of negotiations on the World Trade Organization Doha Round agriculture talks in Geneva on Thursday, but made little or no progress, a source close to the WTO has told The Hagstrom Report.
David Walker, the New Zealand ambassador who chairs the agriculture talks, said at the end of session that he had heard little that is “audibly” new, the source said.
“We are losing one day every day," Walker told the delegates, who are supposed to revise the 2008 draft "modalities" text by April 21, reach agreement on texts in all Doha Round subjects by June or July, and conclude the round by the end of the year, the source said. The next negotiating session is scheduled for March 7.
The Doha Round, which is supposed to ease trade in agriculture, manufacturing and services trade, was launched in 2001, and the last meaningful negotiating session was held in 2008. In agriculture, delegates are trying to make changes in countries’ domestic subsidies, export subsidies, tariffs and other barriers to trade.
At the meeting in Geneva, the source said, delegates discussed tariff simplification that would replace complex customs duties forms with simpler forms, particularly regarding percentages of the price. They reportedly also discussed a special safeguard mechanism that would allow developing countries to raise tariffs temporarily to deal with price falls or import surges, as well as tariff quota creation, which implies countries would be allowed to label products as “sensitive” with a smaller than normal tariff cut, even if the products do not currently have tariff quotas.
Delegates from many countries raised issues that have gone unsettled for years, the source said.
Switzerland said that a deal on geographical indications — limiting the use of names such as “Champagne” sparking wine and “Parma” ham to products from those places — is needed to alleviate losses its farmers are going to suffer as a result of the agriculture negotiations. Australia said that geographical indications should be handled under intellectual property negotiations, and not the agriculture talks.
China and the European Union said any issues that have been more or less settled should not be reopened, while Brazil said that “nothing is fixed, nothing is untouchable.”
Brazil also called for significant improvements in agriculture market access, to match the demands developing countries face to open their non-agricultural and services markets, and Argentina said it agreed with Brazil on that point.
