International tensions over the Iraq war will actually help world trade talks because countries will want to show that multilateral progress is still possible, federal Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew said yesterday.
Pettigrew noted that 142 countries made the decision to launch the Doha round of World Trade Organization negotiations in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"We all want to turn the page (on Iraq discord) and move on and I think it will help us in our work," Pettigrew said during a seminar on the trade talks at the Conférence de Montréal. "The world needs good news."
Pettigrew said the U.S. had made a major concession to launch the Doha round in November 2001 by agreeing to negotiate restrictions on national rules on anti-dumping and countervailing duties. He said he believes the U.S. administration remains serious about completing a WTO deal that would govern international trade in the years to come.
Both Pettigrew and Mexican foreign minister Luis Ernesto Derbez said they were encouraged by the tone of a ministers' meeting in Paris last week.
But Pettigrew insisted Canada will stand firm on the need for Europe and the United States to agree to curb their heavy use of farm subsidies, which depress world commodity prices. The issue is crucial, not only for Canada, but for developing countries, he said.
"It is a scandal that we still have $300 billion to $400 billion of subsidies year after year in the (wealthy) countries," Pettigrew said. "We in Canada will not accept a quick fix in agriculture."
Pettigrew also said there must be an agreement to allow the poorest countries affordable access to patented medicines to combat such ravaging diseases as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Derbez said he expects negotiators to make important progress over the next few months on the drug issue as well as on special and differential treatment for smaller economies.
That will set the stage for a debate on agricultural trade at a major ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in September.
"We are moving and there is progress," said Derbez, who flanked Pettigrew at the seminar. "Finally, we're all back to putting (trade) as a priority on the agenda for all nations. ... We had lost that for a while, given all the other events that were happening in the world."
Pettigrew said he has offered to play host to a representative group of 20 to 25 trade ministers at a meeting in Montreal in late July to try to build momentum for the Cancun meeting.
The minister also said he remains hopeful that the proposed hemispheric trade pact can be completed by its January 2005 deadline.
On Monday, César Gaviria, secretary-general of the Organization of American States, expressed doubts the Free Trade Area of the Americas would be ready for ratification by 2005 given slow progress in the WTO talks.
dmacdonald@thegazette.canwest.com
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